Pro-Vivek Ramaswamy Ad Featuring His Opponent’s Estranged Mother Sparks Bipartisan Disgust: ‘Insanely Monstrous’

Bipartisan outrage has erupted over a political ad in Ohio featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother slamming her daughter as a “liar.”

It’s unclear who paid for the ad featuring Donna Arthur, who introduces herself as Acton’s mother and says in a shaky voice, “I love my daughter but when I saw her lying about her opponent — it’s not easy for a mother to say this. But Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar.

“She says she grew up in a tent,” Arthur adds. “None of that is true.”

While no one has taken responsibility for the ad, many were quick to pin it on Acton’s Republican challenger Vivek Ramaswamy and his supporters. Ramaswamy’s campaign has not publicly commented on the ad at the time of publication. Mediaite reached out for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.

The video ends with Arthur repeating again that Acton is a “liar” and urging viewers not to vote for her because “it will only get worse.”

Acton, a doctor and the former director of the Ohio Department of Health, has shared the story of her troubled childhood for years, long before she ran for office: her parents’ divorce when she was 3, a highly unstable living situation as they frequently moved, a rotating “cast of characters” who were her mother’s boyfriends, ending in one man her mother married despite having “accusations of molestation events in his past.”

Acton’s stepfather was criminally charged with sexually abusing her while she was between the ages of 9 and 12. At the time of the arrest, Acton said her family had been living in a tent at a campground, despite it being winter. Her mother and stepfather skipped town while he was out on bond, her father got custody of her and her brother, and Acton says she has not spoken to her mother since then.

Tuesday afternoon, National Review national affairs reporter Charles Hilu reported that he had reviewed the legal documents related to Acton’s childhood and found an “extensive record” of the abuse and neglect she has spoken about, as well as a “criminal history” for Arthur, “including pleading guilty to theft by deception while living in Pennsylvania in the 1990s and being accused of animal abuse as recently as 2021.”

Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, released a statement vociferously condemning Ramaswamy “platforming their estranged and abusive mother” as “a despicable low.”

“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” said Stearns.

“After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core – a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”

Acton herself responded in an interview with Spectrum News, saying that Ramaswamy had a “lifelong pattern” of  being “such a liar,” saying that she “won’t normalize somebody who has said my childhood is just something I’m complaining about,” even though she and her brother were removed from her birth mother’s custody when she was 12 “for severe abuse and neglect and sexual abuse.” She also mentioned Ramaswamy’s past attacks on his opponents in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, including on Nikki Haley’s 14-year-old daughter.

The ad also drew swift condemnation from conservatives who balked at exploiting a troubled family history and openly declared seeing the ad made them “feel sympathetic towards Acton,” as Liz Mair, a communications strategist who has worked on multiple GOP presidential campaigns, put it. Mair also blasted the ad as “terrible” and said it would “remind people of that one family member who hates them for no rational reason at all.”

Conservative commentator Mary Katherine Ham commented she thought it was “crazy” anyone would think this ad would not “backfire” to use “[a]n estranged mom from a rough childhood going straight to camera to trash her daughter.”

Brady Penfield, a conservative activist affiliated with Turning Point Action, wrote he was “disappointed in Vivek’s team for green lighting this ad” and that it was “inexcusable and disgusting” to use family members this way.

Meghan McCain shared a now-deleted tweet with the ad and added a blunt and succinct comment: “I hate this ad.”

Reason’s Robby Soave blasted the ad as “sick stuff” and also said the ad made him feel “more sympathetic to Amy Acton.”

Below are additional reactions criticizing the ad:

The Ramaswamy campaign responded to the ad later in the day Tuesday, but notably neither denied responsibility for the ad nor condemned it, choosing instead to attack Acton again as a “serial fabulist.”

This article has been updated with additional information.

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