US Vice-President JD Vance has told fellow Republicans to stop “whining” about a controversial attack advertisement. The ad features the estranged mother of a Democratic candidate calling her daughter a liar. Speaking while campaigning in Ohio for Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor, Vance said he was “a little bit disgusted” by criticism from members of his own party.
In the ad, Donna Arthur, the mother of Democratic candidate Amy Acton, says her daughter “lied her entire life”. The advertisement does not mention that Arthur’s husband was charged with raping Acton when she was a child. The Ramaswamy campaign has claimed credit for the ad and has paid millions of dollars to broadcast it across the state.
Republicans divided over the Ramaswamy ad
The video first appeared on social media on Monday evening, but it did not say who had paid for or approved it. Ramaswamy confirmed on Tuesday that his campaign was behind it, and he later pledged to spend $4m (£2.9m) to air it further. The move has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who ran against Ramaswamy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said “he’s a bad guy. It’s a shame he continues to get away with it”.
Asked whether he thought the ad was appropriate, Vance replied: “It’s not really my concern.” He added: “What is my concern is who’s going to govern the next generation of American government.” He said members of his party were complaining more about the advertisement than about what congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the country.
Vance, a former Ohio senator, later defended the ad at a rally for Ramaswamy. He said the media and Democrats in Ohio were “obsessed”, arguing that Ramaswamy had run a television commercial that described the situation accurately and called Acton a liar.
Acton’s family history and her brother’s response
Acton and her brother were removed from their mother’s custody when her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and charged in 1978. Acton said in an interview with an Ohio news outlet that this was the last time she spoke to her mother. The Arthurs left Ohio, and Cledith Arthur was never prosecuted on the rape charge. He died in 2004.
Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, is among those who have condemned the advertisement. He said that turning alleged sexual assault into “a political talking point” was a “despicable low”.
Acton’s team released its own campaign video on Tuesday. It features Stearns recounting childhood abuse and saying “Amy always got the worst of it”. In the 30-second clip, he says “Shame on Vivek” and accuses Ramaswamy of holding contempt for both Amy and Ohio.
When asked about Ramaswamy’s ad on Wednesday, President Donald Trump, who is an ally of Ramaswamy, said: “I know nothing about it. I heard the mother went very rogue on the daughter.” He added that it was a very unusual situation for a mother to hate a daughter that much, but that he did not think it had anything to do with Ramaswamy.
Other Republicans and the shifting Ohio governor race
Several other Republicans, including some running for statewide office, have now criticised the advertisement. Ohio Senator John Husted, who is up for re-election, told a news agency: “I would not have run that ad.”
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is running to be state auditor, also distanced himself from it. He said candidates would answer for their own ads and that he probably would not run one like that, but that every candidate makes their own decision.
David Lublin, a professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs, said political attack ads are not new, but that they have become more intense and that the limits of what candidates attack have widened. He noted that using relatives against a political opponent is also not new, citing family members who testified against Robert F Kennedy Jr before he was confirmed as health secretary.
However, Lublin said this case was different. “They’re estranged not over policy but over a rape allegation,” he said. He linked the coarsening of political debate partly to Trump’s rhetoric and campaigns, pointing to a time Trump mocked a reporter in Ohio who had a disability.
Lublin said the main purpose of attack ads is often not to win over supporters of an opponent but to discourage their turnout. He expects the Ramaswamy ad to backfire, and said it could show that his campaign is desperate to gain momentum in an increasingly competitive race. No Democrat has been elected governor of Ohio in more than two decades.
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan website that rates and tracks US elections, has moved the Ohio governor’s race from “leans Republican” to “toss up”. That rating means neither candidate has a clear advantage.
