Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for governor of Ohio has stopped running a television advert that featured his Democratic opponent’s estranged mother, after a week of criticism that reached deep into his own party. The spot, in which Amy Acton’s mother told viewers her daughter could not be trusted, had been promised a multimillion-dollar budget but went dark with only days left before Tuesday’s election.
The Acton campaign announced on Thursday that the ad was off the air, and Forbes confirmed on Friday that the Ramaswamy camp had stopped airing it. The Republican did not frame the move as a retreat. Speaking in Vandalia, Ohio, he said the ad had run to completion and that his campaign had since put up four other commercials.
What the ad said and why it caused uproar
The commercial featured Donna Arthur, the mother of Dr Acton, the former Ohio health director who became a national figure during the Covid-19 pandemic. In it, Ms Arthur said she loved her daughter but called her a liar who needed serious help, and urged Ohioans not to make her governor. A shorter 30-second cut was later released.
The backlash centred on the family’s history. According to Toledo station 13abc, Ms Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, Dr Acton’s stepfather, was indicted for raping Dr Acton when she was a child. Dr Acton has said she last spoke to her mother at the age of 12, when officials removed her from her care. She called the advert despicable and said her mother is not well.
Her brother, Phillip Stearns, issued a statement through the Acton campaign accusing Mr Ramaswamy of exploiting the abuse his sister suffered, and saying their mother had stayed married to the abuser until his death, Forbes reported.
Republicans broke ranks
What made the row unusual was the scale of Republican discomfort. Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, described the ad as deeply disturbing and urged Mr Ramaswamy to take it down. Senator Jon Husted, who is fighting his own tight race against Democrat Sherrod Brown, said he would not have run it. Casey Putsch, who challenged Mr Ramaswamy in the Republican primary, went further and said he would vote for Dr Acton.
Democrats piled in too. Former president Barack Obama and Mr Brown both condemned the spot, and Mr Obama used a campaign appearance on 24 October to attack it.
The ad did have powerful defenders. Donald Trump said Mr Ramaswamy had been treated very unfairly and blamed the media, while Vice President JD Vance told Republican critics to stop complaining about an advert and focus on winning the race. At a rally in Ohio this week Mr Trump again backed the ad, according to CBS News.
The money and the polls
Mr Ramaswamy’s campaign had pledged to spend $4 million airing the spot on television and online. The Associated Press, citing ad-tracking firm AdImpact, reported that about $1 million had actually been spent, roughly a quarter of the promised sum.
The Acton campaign was scathing about the manner of the climbdown. Spokesperson Addie Bullock said the ad should never have run, that it had been withdrawn without any apology to Dr Acton, her family or Ohio voters, and urged people to reject Mr Ramaswamy at the polls.
The race was already slipping away from the Republican, according to the latest surveys. A Fox News poll had Mr Ramaswamy trailing Dr Acton by two points, while Fox’s own analysts noted that other high-quality polls since September put her ahead by about seven points on average. On Thursday Fox News moved the governor’s race from toss-up to lean Democrat, and made the same shift in the Ohio Senate contest, where its poll put Mr Brown on 52 per cent to Mr Husted’s 47.
Ohio has leaned Republican in recent elections, so Democratic wins in either race would be seen as a major warning sign for Mr Trump’s party.
What happens next
Ohioans vote on Tuesday 3 November, with results expected overnight Irish time. The governor’s office is open because Mr DeWine is term-limited. Whatever the outcome, the episode is likely to be studied as a test of how far negative campaigning can go before it backfires. Mr Ramaswamy’s campaign has moved on to other messaging, including attacks on Dr Acton’s record during the pandemic, CBS News reported.
Sources
- Forbes: Vivek Ramaswamy pulls Amy Acton mother ad after bipartisan backlash (30 October 2026)
- 13abc (WTVG): Ramaswamy pulls ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother following backlash (29 October 2026)
- CBS News: 2026 elections live updates from the campaign trail (29-30 October 2026)
- Fox News: Power Rankings shift Ohio and South Carolina Senate races (29 October 2026)
Featured image: Ohio Statehouse columbus by unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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