Ramaswamy Spends $4 Million on Attack Ad as Acton Gains

Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy is spending more than $4 million to keep an attack ad on the air through Election Day, even as new polling shows Amy Acton with a slight lead in Ohio’s governor’s race. The ad features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and saying she “has a serious problem.” Private polls found Acton’s lead had grown by six points since the commercial began airing, and a memo attached to the poll said the crisis was “having a significant effect on the gubernatorial race.”

The campaign is putting a family history of neglect and abuse in front of voters as paid political ammunition. Acton has said she hasn’t seen her mother since 1978. Her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was indicted that year on a rape charge involving Acton, but was never convicted. Arthur and her husband fled Ohio for Pennsylvania. HuffPost reported that Acton said her mother remained married to her stepfather after his indictment on charges of allegedly raping her when she was a teenager, leaving Acton and her brother to live with their biological father.

A private history turned into campaign material

The ad began airing the week before the report. Ramaswamy has refused to apologize and doubled down, with the Columbus Dispatch reporting that he spent more than $4 million to air it through Election Day. HuffPost said he had vowed to spend $4 million promoting it. The decision belongs to a candidate with access to a large campaign advertising budget; the people whose family history appears in the commercial don’t control how that machinery uses it.

Republican officials have criticized the ad, but their calls haven’t stopped the spending. Gov. Mike DeWine called it “deeply, deeply troubling,” particularly in light of Acton’s childhood abuse, and called for it to be taken down. Former Gov. John Kasich also urged Ramaswamy to remove it. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) were among Republicans who condemned it. Vice President JD Vance defended the ad the previous week, saying he was “a little bit disgusted” with Republicans who criticized it.

The campaign stage and the ballot box

Political forecasters moved the race from a toss-up to “leans Democrat.” The poll raises Republican concerns that the ad isn’t resonating with voters, but the campaign’s response has been to keep paying for it. That is the contest’s blunt arithmetic: public criticism and poll movement on one side, a multimillion-dollar advertising decision on the other.

President Donald Trump defended the ad again and said he had been “treated very unfairly” over the criticism. He said: “The mother said that Amy Acton, the daughter, is a liar, that she's no good, that she lied about the opponent. How the hell is that his problem?” On Truth Social, he wrote, “The Press is trying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it's so good!” On Wednesday, Trump criticized press coverage and said that if his mother ever said something bad about him, “the press would be getting Pulitzer Prizes.”

Trump’s Oct. 28 rally in Chillicothe was his third Ohio campaign stop of the midterm election. He has won Ohio three times, most recently by 11 percentage points, but the state hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 2006. Former President Barack Obama rallied with Brown and Acton on Oct. 24, criticizing Trump and Ramaswamy’s use of the ad. “There's got to be something inside you where you just say no office is worth stooping that low,” Obama said.

Economic pressure beyond the campaign

Ohio voters have expressed frustration with high gas prices linked to the unpopular Iran War, rising property tax bills and opposition to data centers, which have been particularly prolific in Ohio. Husted is also in a tight race with former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost reelection in 2024 to Republican Bernie Moreno and is seeking a comeback. DeWine appointed Husted to serve the remainder of Vice President JD Vance’s Senate term.

In Ross County, where Trump held the rally, Chillicothe has faced economic hardships. Pixelle Specialty Solutions’ paper mill closed in August 2025, costing hundreds of people their jobs. The plant later transitioned to making nitrile gloves; a data center company is leasing some of the land, and U.S. Paper Mill is bringing back some paper production employees. The campaign spectacle arrived in a place where the local economy has already been reshaped by closures, leases and decisions made by employers.