It is entirely possible that Vivek Ramaswamy, heretofore a slab of roadkill from the 2024 Republican presidential nomination process, looked around Ohio and noticed that vice president J. Divan Vance had breezed past him in the rankings for Most Unlikable Ohio Political Human. Ramaswamy needed a long ball to get back in the game, and he by god found one. He associated himself with the vilest, most inhumane advertisement in the history of American politics. It's almost like Roger Ailes sent this to the campaign directly from his office chair in Hell.
Ramaswamy presently is running for governor of Ohio. His Democratic opponent is Dr. Amy Acton, a physician with a remarkable biography. When she was 12, she and her brother were removed from their mother's custody because she had married a man who subsequently had molested her. From The Columbus Dispatch:
Acton's brother, Philip Stearns, and court records reviewed by the statehouse bureau back up Acton's account of a childhood filled with abuse, neglect and at times, homelessness. Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, lost custody of her two children and left Ohio with Cledith before the rape case against him could be resolved.
So, as Acton began to build a thin lead in the governor's race, Ramaswamy, or some bright young thing who works for his ad, had a brilliant idea. Let's attack Acton's biography and ... wait for it ... let's use her estranged mother, the woman who stood by her creepy man all the way until his death, to do it for us. The ad leaked earlier this week.
"If you think she'll make your life better, you're fooling yourself," Arthur said in a 60-second ad cut by the Ramaswamy campaign. Ramaswamy said Acton's mother wasn't paid to appear in the spot. The ad is at least the second time Arthur has publicly accused her daughter of lying. Arthur detailed concerns about Acton's backstory to an anti-abortion group in 2020 while Acton was serving as state health director.
Acton detailed her troubled home life and her mother's neglect in a Youngstown Vindicator article published in August 2019. She described living in "18 or so" homes, including one unfinished basement, before turning 12. She recalled Arthur's many boyfriends and their frequent moves. At one point, they lived in a tent outside of Youngstown, Acton told the Vindicator. According to Acton, the situation escalated when her stepfather sexually abused her at age 12. Austintown Police arrested Cledith Arthur in summer 1978 for the rape of a 12-year-old girl "following an investigation initiated by the girl's father," the Youngstown Daily Vindicator reported at the time. Cledith Arthur left the state before the case could be resolved. A warrant was issued for his arrest in October 1978 and December 1981, according to court records provided to the statehouse bureau. A records request has been filed with the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, and they are working to pull records on the case from 1978.
The blowback was instantaneous and of considerable megatonnage. At the beginning, Ramaswamy crawfished around, dodging and weaving that ol' devil, responsibility. After a few hours of that, he copped to being behind the ad and then doubled down on it. On Tuesday, he announced that he was putting $4 million behind the ad for the homestretch of the campaign. From the Lexington Herald Leader:
"Every person who appears to know her the best—her former boss, her former colleagues in state government, even the doctors in this state, the Ohio State Medical Association—have told voters not to vote for her but to vote for me instead," Ramaswamy told the USA TODAY Ohio Statehouse Bureau. "This is a pattern of someone else who appears to know her well, who says the same thing, and I do think that's important for voters to take all of that into account, especially because Amy Acton has hid from debate and ducked questions.”
And, on Wednesday, an epic conjunction of repulsive humans occurred. J. Divan Vance came to town to support Ramaswamy and to tell other GOP politicians to stop being such baby-men about using an opponent's vast childhood trauma as a weapon against them. Also from the Leader:
"Politics is a tough business," he said during a press conference Oct. 21 at the Cincinnati FBI field office in Sycamore Township. "I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans who are whining more about that advertisement" than who will win the race for Ohio governor. When asked about the ad, Vance wouldn't say whether the ad was appropriate. "Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern," Vance said. "What is my concern is who's going to govern the next generation of American government. Who is going to win the Senate race in the state of Ohio, who is going to win the governor's race in the state of Ohio."
And, after all, Vance is an expert at selling out family members for dough and, ultimately, for political advantage. Vance and Ramaswamy deserve each other, and Ohio doesn't deserve either one.