Vice President JD Vance went after the Republicans criticizing an ad supporting Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy that features the mother of his opponent.
Vance made the comments to reporters en route to a rally with Ramaswamy in Ohio on Wednesday. The vice president said that “whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. What is my concern is who is going to govern the next generation of American government.”
“I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” Vance said. “So I would say to Ohio Republicans: Do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do. Do you actually think that Sherrod Brown should not be given a 50th year in public service to ship American jobs overseas and to bring men into women’s sports? Because I do.”
The minute-long spot, promoted on social media by third parties but not the Ramaswamy campaign, is underpinned by Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Stearns Arthur, who criticizes Acton for “lying about her opponent” and “her past,” including claims that she “grew up living in a tent.”
“It’s not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem,” Stearns Arthur says. “My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first, they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn’t doing that.”
However, what the ad, now watched almost 3 million times on one X account, does not mention is how Acton has not had a relationship with Stearns Arthur since 1978, after she and her brother were removed from her custody amid allegations that her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, raped her when she was 12 years old. Stearns Arthur and her husband eventually fled the state to avoid prosecution.
Vance urged Republicans to remember the negative ads that have been lobbed against GOP candidates in the past, including himself and Ramaswamy.
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“So my message to Republicans is: Remember some of the ads that have been run against me,” the vice president said. “I’ve run in, I guess, two races now in my entire life. People have called Vivek Ramaswamy a murderer in some of the advertisements ran against him. People have called, you know, used the president of the United States. … 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.”
As of Wednesday, Ramaswamy holds a 1-point advantage over Acton in the RealClearPolitics polling average.