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The people’s newsroom

WorldUS

Trump tells Ramaswamy to keep ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother, calls DeWine 'disloyal'

Ohio's Republican governor had urged the party's nominee to pull the spot, in which Acton's mother disputes her daughter's account of childhood abuse. Acton's camp called it despicable.

From the editorial desk · Columbus, OhioPublished
Ohio governor candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton (file photos)
Ohio governor candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton (file photos)Photos: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons; Myselfsour2724 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. Trump said Vivek Ramaswamy should keep running the ad and called Governor Mike DeWine disloyal.
  2. In the ad, Acton's mother Donna Arthur disputes her daughter's account of abuse and homelessness.
  3. Ramaswamy's campaign is spending $4 million to promote it in a tight race.

President Donald Trump has told Vivek Ramaswamy to keep running a television advertisement in which the estranged mother of his Democratic rival for Ohio governor, Amy Acton, urges voters to reject her, and accused Ohio’s Republican governor of being “disloyal” for opposing it.

In the ad, Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, disputes her daughter’s account of a childhood marked by homelessness and sexual abuse by her stepfather, and tells Ohioans not to vote for her. Acton says she has not seen her mother since 1978. Her brother, Philip Stearns, backs her account. The stepfather, who died in 2004, had been charged with rape.

Stearns called the ad a “desperate, disgusting attack”. Acton campaign spokesperson Addie Bullock said Ramaswamy’s decision to promote it was “both despicable and entirely predictable”.

Ramaswamy’s campaign is spending $4 million to put the ad in front of voters.

The spot has split Ohio Republicans. Governor Mike DeWine, who is term-limited and cannot run again, said it was wrong to air it and asked the campaign to take it down, pointing to his years working with rape victims as a prosecutor and as the state’s attorney general. Trump answered by calling DeWine disloyal to the party.

Vice President JD Vance, campaigning with Ramaswamy, waved away Republican criticism as “whining”.

Polls show Acton, a former state health director, narrowly ahead in one of the closest governor’s races of the 3 November midterms. Ramaswamy, the Indian-American biotech entrepreneur who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is seeking to keep the governorship in Republican hands.