Vivek Ramaswamy won’t take credit for a vile campaign advertisement featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother—but he’s more than happy to defend it.
The Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee’s team released a statement Tuesday championing an ugly attack ad featuring Donna Arthur, who lost custody of Acton after years of documented issues, including homelessness and sexual abuse by a stepfather.
“We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother, who spoke out about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor,” said Connie Luck, a spokesperson for Ramaswamy.
In a video first obtained by The Rooster, a local political blog in Ohio, Arthur accused her daughter of lying about her upbringing, specifically that her family had been homeless.
“She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life,” Arthur said, adding: “Don’t vote for people who lie. Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself. It will only get worse.”
In 1978, Arthur’s husband, Cledith “Bud” Arthur, was charged and indicted for rape. Court documents indicate he’d engaged in sexual contact with Acton when she was less than 13 years old. In a 2019 interview, Acton said that she’d been sexually abused between the ages of nine and 12. After her stepfather pleaded guilty, he skipped bail, and Arthur left town with him, Acton said.
The advertisement doesn’t include the typical political disclosures, isn’t running on television, and isn’t being pushed on social media or search engines. Rather, it is being solely championed by right-wing influencers who are foaming at the mouth for the chance to smear Acton’s character.
It’s still not clear who produced the video, but Acton appeared certain that she knows who’s really behind it.
“I won’t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is something I’m just complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect, sexual abuse,” she said in an television interview Tuesday, referring to Ramaswamy. “The words our leaders use matter and I think it’s going to take courage right now, from all of us, to stop normalizing this sort of rhetoric.”
Ramaswamy previously blasted Acton for discussing the abuse, claiming Ohio needs someone with “a positive vision for our state versus a governor who has none at all other than to complain about what someone else did to her.”
Acton’s brother Philip Stearns also condemned the ad. “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,” Stearns said in a statement.
“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.”