Ruthless midterms ad divides Republicans
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The gist
Ohio Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother drew backlash from GOP officials.
The fight tests whether personal attacks cost Republicans a race Acton leads.
Background
Vivek Ramaswamy is the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, a biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate seeking to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine. His Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, is a doctor who has said she was sexually abused as a child by her mother's husband and has not spoken to her mother in nearly 50 years. The ad centers on that mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a "liar" with a "serious problem" — an unusually personal spot two weeks before Election Day, as recent polls show Acton ahead but not by a landslide.
How it unfolded
- Oct 18, 2026Ramaswamy speaks at the Darke County Republican Party Hog Roast in Greenville, Ohio, days before the ad debuts.
- Oct 20, 2026Democratic super PAC Progress Action Fund releases "Republicans In Your Bathroom" as part of an ad buy worth more than $1 million airing in Texas and Ohio.
- Oct 21, 2026Bipartisan backlash leaves Republicans in Ohio and Washington reeling; Ramaswamy and Vice President J.D. Vance double down, with Vance campaigning in Cincinnati. Sen. Jon Husted tells The Associated Press, "I would not have run that ad."
- Oct 22, 2026Gov. Mike DeWine calls the ad "deeply, deeply troubling" and urges Ramaswamy's campaign to take it down. Trump posts on Truth Social criticizing DeWine while praising Ramaswamy's "very powerful" ad. Former Gov. John Kasich says on MS NOW that "there is nothing appropriate" about the commercial.
- Oct 23, 2026Trump backs the ad again in a lengthy social media post, calling it "very powerful" and saying "I would, it's called, 'hitting pay dirt.'"
- Oct 24, 2026Ramaswamy defends the ad as his Ohio bus tour divides Republicans.
Who’s saying what
- Caution
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine calls the ad "deeply, deeply troubling" and "wrong," and urges Ramaswamy's campaign to take it down.
- Party
- Sen. Jon Husted says "I would not have run that ad," and former Gov. John Kasich says "there is nothing appropriate" about it and that "the reaction to all of this has been disgust."
- Support
- Vice President J.D. Vance says Republicans are "whining" about the ad rather than about what Democrats want to do to the country, and that Democrats have thrown "every dirty trick in the political book at Vivek."
- Support
- President Trump calls the ad "very powerful" and says "I would, it's called, 'hitting pay dirt'"; he says DeWine "probably" wants the Democrat to win.
- Party
- Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, calls the spot "disgusting" and says everyone, including Husted, should denounce it.
Still unverified
Anonymous Republican strategists quoted by TIME say privately that old-guard Republicans were baffled by the ad and some predicted it would draw more empathy and interest in Acton from voters; some strategists also believe Husted and other Republicans could suffer collateral damage from sharing the ticket with Ramaswamy.