Ramaswamy’s Campaign Ends Ad Targeting Acton’s Family

Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign put $4 million in airtime behind an ad using the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, before confirming Thursday that the spot had completed its intended run. The ad is off the air. The campaign says other ads are still running in the final days of the race.

“I’m learning things even about my childhood right now that I did not know,” Acton told reporters Tuesday during a campaign stop in Youngstown. “I think it is despicable. ... I’m sure someday I’ll unpack everything that I’m learning here. But I’m just grateful to Ohioans and everyone, really so much support and love that we’ve received.”

A campaign turns family history into airtime

The ad featured Donna Arthur, Acton’s mother, calling her daughter a liar and urging Ohioans not to vote for her. Acton has said she has not seen Arthur since her then-stepfather was charged with raping her when she was a young child, nearly 50 years ago. The ad didn’t address details of the rape case.

That campaign choice put painful family history into a political broadcast, with millions of dollars assigned to carry the message. Critics objected to the campaign’s use of Arthur as a character witness and to its revival of that history. The ad debuted the previous week as a one-minute spot and was later shortened to 30 seconds.

The broadcast ended, but the campaign said it had other ads running. In the closing days of an election, the people whose lives become campaign material have little say over how that material is edited, shortened, or put before voters. Here, Acton said she was learning about her own childhood as the ad circulated.

Condemnation, then a quiet exit

The ad drew wide bipartisan condemnation. Many people, including term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who has endorsed Ramaswamy, called for it to be taken down. Their objections did not stop its planned run: the campaign said the ad received $4 million in airtime and confirmed only after it had run to completion that it was ending.

Acton’s campaign spokesperson Addie Bullock said Thursday: “Vivek Ramaswamy should never have run his despicable ad in the first place, and it’s totally unsurprising that he took it off the air in the most cowardly way possible, without even the hint of an apology to Dr. Acton, her family, or to the people of Ohio.” The statement described an ad that had already completed its run, not an apology from the campaign.

The Columbus Dispatch first reported that the ad was ending its run. At a Thursday campaign stop, Ramaswamy said, “It ran to completion, and we’ve put up four other ads,” according to the newspaper. That is the campaign’s account: one spot finished, four others in rotation, and no apology mentioned in his remarks.

The election machinery keeps moving. The personal history has been aired, condemned across party lines, and folded into a campaign’s sequence of advertisements; Acton says she is still trying to understand what she is learning. The airtime ended on schedule. The consequences for the people made into political material don’t follow a campaign schedule.