An ad and a bitter family schism roil the governor’s race
Vivek Ramaswamy sent a bolt through U.S. politics this week when the Republican gubernatorial candidate announced his campaign was indeed behind a new ad starring his Democratic opponent’s estranged mother. The development has made Ohio’s governor’s race the top political story in the country for the past 48 hours.
In the ad, Donna Arthur calls Amy Acton a “liar” who shouldn’t be elected governor. The ad doesn’t mention the backstory. It’s a big piece of what’s driving outrage: Acton was removed from her mother’s home in 1978 as a 12-year-old after her stepfather was charged with raping her. The stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was previously indicted for incest in 1974, newspaper archives show. The resolution of that case wasn’t immediately clear. Acton’s mother stayed with him and the two fled the state to avoid the charges involving Acton. Cledith Arthur died in 2004.
The ad steers clear of mentioning the criminal case against Acton’s stepfather. Instead, Acton’s mother accuses her daughter of lying about having lived in a tent as a child for a winter. That’s the story Acton and her brother have described publicly. The ad was instantly notorious, setting off immediate condemnation not just from media figures and Democrats but also from some Republicans too.
Publicly and privately, there are two main flavors of Republican criticism. Some found the ad morally reprehensible. Others worried it will backfire politically once voters hear the full story of Acton’s childhood. Of course, the two views aren’t mutually exclusive.
An example of the first camp came from Shannon Jones, a Republican former state senator who’s now the president of the Warren County commissioners. She called the ad “complete trash” in a social media post and expanded on her thoughts in an interview.
“It’s despicable. It’s outrageous, and I’m always going to stand up for victims and children,” said Jones, a previous CEO of Groundwork Ohio, a major state children’s advocacy group.
Asked if she’ll vote for Ramaswamy, she said, “It’s just so appalling. Of course not. My children are watching me.”
(Update: Four more prominent Ohio Republicans – Gov. Mike DeWine, state auditor candidate Frank LaRose and Sen. Jon Husted and former attorney general Dave Yost – all have distanced themselves from the ad.)
The second view of the ad’s liability is best represented by major national Republican pundit Scott Jennings, a regular on CNN. He described the ad as a reckless gamble and “extremely risky.” He said state Republicans had been feeling good about their electoral prospects before its release.
“I talked to a lot of people in Ohio tonight before I came out here … a lot of people who were unsure that this was the right thing to do,” Jennings said.
A third view of the ad was championed by Vice President JD Vance during an appearance in Cincinnati on Wednesday.
“Politics is a tough business, and my message to my fellow elected Republicans is – if you actually believe in the things you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days,” he said to cheers.
Ramaswamy allies believe the ad is effective. They noted it doesn’t accuse Acton of lying about the sexual abuse – just about the tent. Arthur, however, denied her daughter’s abuse claims on the record in a 2020 interview with an anti-abortion advocate. (Arthur didn’t respond to interview requests from Signal Statewide via phone or LinkedIn. )
Ramaswamy has announced he plans to spend $4 million to air the ad on TV – an amount that would ensure it’s widely seen before the Nov. 3 election.
Some bewildered Republicans said privately this week they aren’t sure how the controversy will play out publicly.
-Andrew
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Ramaswamy ad reinforces stigmas, advocates say
Setting aside what political actors think, Ramaswamy’s ad has not landed well with sexual assault victims and their advocates.
The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, a major advocacy group, has begun to hear from its statewide network of rape crisis centers and from survivors who have been triggered by the ad.
“These political talking points do affect sexual abuse survivors,” said Emily Gemar, a spokesperson for OAESV. “It’s not just what’s contained in the ad. It’s reinforcing these beliefs and the stigmas about this violence.”
Even though the ad doesn’t explicitly mention sexual abuse, Gemar said, survivors have said they perceive it as reinforcing their fears about speaking out after being sexually assaulted. The political season already has had many ads touching on sexual assault themes. But Ramaswamy’s ad layers in an especially painful dynamic involving families and child victimhood, Gemar said.
“It’s really just reinforcing these painful messages and beliefs to survivors who are watching and already wondering whether it’s safe to tell their stories,” Gemar said.
The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence advises survivors to consider muting the TV or social media when political ads come on and to not feel as though they have to explain or debate their views and experiences with anyone.
They also can turn to local rape crisis centers for support or call the state’s 24/7 sexual assault hotline at 1-844-644-6435.
-Andrew
Down the ballot
Continuing our running theme on some of the down-ballot races worthy of your attention – Ohio will pick a new chief elections officer this year.
The secretary of state administers elections in Ohio, giving him or her wide power over basic democratic functions around electoral contests, ballot referendum efforts, redistricting, election challenges and others.
I sat down this month with the two candidates: Republican Robert Sprague, currently the state treasurer, and Democrat Allison Russo, a Democratic state lawmaker and recent leader of the House Democrats.
The biggest difference between the two of them revolves around whose votes will get counted in future elections. This reflects their respective parties’ positions, too.
Sprague expressed support for a wide range of different new restrictions on voters to reduce the hyper-rare instances of election fraud or noncitizen voting.
Russo worried about the ways some of those crackdowns – think voter ID, citizenship verification checks and the rollback of drop boxes – will prevent otherwise eligible voters from being counted.
- Read our overview of the race here
- Read our interview with Sprague here
- Read our interview with Russo here
-Jake
Republicans take on ‘systemic racism’?
A Republican group is promoting socialist Greg Levy to Black voters as part of its attempt to undermine Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race.
A mailer from the group, Enough Promises Ohio, accuses Brown of supporting mass incarceration through his vote for the landmark 1994 crime bill, which is viewed as responsible for an increase in prison sentences and a prison-building boom. The message on the mailer also calls for “reparations for Black America” and an end to “systemic racism” of all forms.
“Sherrod Brown built the system to lock us up,” said the ad, which was shared by a reader who received it.
Enough Promises Ohio now has disclosed spending $1 million on mailers this month – a large sum for a short period of time – plus another $753,000 in TV ads. It’s still not clear who’s behind the group or who is funding it. The mail vendor is a Republican firm with close ties to President Donald Trump’s political operation. Levy has denounced the ads.
-Andrew
On the calendar
The Ohio Republican Party is starting its statewide bus tour on Friday with planned stops in Strongsville, Delaware and Circleville
Noted Chicago man Barack Obama will be in Cleveland on Saturday for a rally for Brown and ActonTrump is coming back to Ohio next week
Ohio’s first day of early, in-person weekend voting is this Saturday, Oct. 24, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The last day of early voting is Sunday, Nov. 1
Election Day is in 12 days
In the news
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Gas drillers ask Ohio to open the publicly owned Monroe Lake Wildlife Area for fracking. The request comes as the industry-receptive Oil and Gas Land Management Commission has opened 22,000 acres of state parks and wildlife reserves to oil and gas exploration since 2021. The next governor could shape future deals. Read more from Jake here.
Courts block Ohio Republicans from killing a clean air law opposed by polluters. A Franklin County judge overturned Ohio lawmakers’ effort to eliminate a clean air enforcement rule that’s used against polluters. She said the legislation unconstitutionally spanned multiple subjects. Read the full story by Jake here.
An Ohio lawmaker voted for Senate Bill 1. Now some Kent State students are trying to oust her. Some students are encouraging their peers to vote against State Rep. Heidi Workman after she supported the higher education law passed last year. Read more from Amy Morona here.
FiftyPlusOne just caught a pollster faking data — and they copped to it. An organization called Wedgewood Polls is the latest group to admit to releasing fake polls for this year’s elections. The firm closed down, calling its work a “social experiment,” after being confronted by FiftyPlusOne, an election forecasting blog. Among the group’s body of work was an August poll in Ohio that showed Democrats holding narrow leads in the U.S. Senate and governor’s races. Read more here.
