COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Republican Vivek Ramaswamy The team confirmed on Tuesday evening that they had produced a controversial advert featuring the ex-mother of Amy Actonand the campaign announced it would spend $4 million to release it despite bipartisan criticism for bringing up the painful childhood of its Democratic opponent in the Ohio gubernatorial race.
Acton, who has made no secret of experiencing homelessness and sexual abuse as a child, had spent the day forcefully objecting to the content of the video, whose origins were initially unclear. In it, her biological mother, Donna Arthur, calls her a “liar” and insinuates that she has mental health issues.
The ad began circulating overnight, just two weeks before Election Day. Acton, Former Ohio Public Health Directoris in a close race against Vivek Ramaswamya Trump-backed biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate who benefited from spending in his name exceeding $120 million.
The online ad, which first surfaced in an article by an Ohio political blogger, quickly spread across social media platforms. It did not include the “paid for” label that is legally required to air on television so viewers can know who produced and paid for it. DJ Brynes, who blogs under the name “The Rooster,” told CNN he obtained the video from a voter who viewed it for a poll and saved it.
Connie Luck, a spokeswoman for Ramaswamy’s campaign, said Acton’s mother was not paid for the one-minute spot. She said the ad would run online and on television in the final days of the campaign.
All day Tuesday, Acton condemned Ramaswamy for the ad, already suspecting his opponent of being behind the attack.
“I will not normalize someone who said my childhood was just something I complained about, and who just released an ad today using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse, neglect and sexual abuse,” she told Spectrum News, an Ohio cable news outlet.
President Donald Trump listens as gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a campaign rally at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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She said Ramaswamy was accused of similar personal attacks during his run for the GOP presidential nomination: “It’s a lifelong habit with my opponent.” »
Ramaswamy’s campaign initially released a statement that did not say whether he was responsible for the ad or knew who produced it. In the statement, Luck said Acton “has serious issues with the truth that the public needs to be aware of.”
In a statement released by Acton’s campaign, his brother, Philip Stearns, said the two were removed from the custody of their mother Donna Arthur as children after their stepfather, Arthur’s husband, was indicted for raping Acton when he was a child. Acton has not seen Arthur, whose last known address was in Pennsylvania, since they were in a courtroom together in 1978.
Later Tuesday, the Acton campaign released a response ad featuring Stearns, who recalls that his older sister suffered “the worst” of the abuse they faced as children in order to protect him and disparages Ramaswamy and his allies for exploiting the situation.
According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with raping her stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978 after Acton’s biological father reported her alleged conduct to authorities. The abuse allegedly occurred from December 1976 to April 1978.
Cledith Arthur has pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury in September, but failed to appear at a court hearing and remained on the run until at least 1981. He has since died.
Prominent Republicans who support Ramaswamy — including Donald Trump Jr. and influencer Laura Loomer — have highlighted the video in online posts.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton speaks during a campaign event at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, September 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
But other Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the ad. Meghan McCain called it “despicable” and Dan Hauser, a strategist for Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his retweet of the ad once he realized “the very serious accusations that were at the root of their problems.”
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Sherrod Brown, called the spot “disgusting” and said everyone — including his opponent, Sen. Jon Husted — should be prepared to condemn it. Husted’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Acton’s mother does not mention Ramaswamy by name in the ad, but she suggests that Acton misrepresented her opponent and the time when her family was homeless and living in a tent when she was a child — an experience that Stearns corroborates.
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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
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