STRONGVILLE, Ohio — Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy took aim at the news media amid a bipartisan backlash to his attack ad against Democratic opponent Amy Acton.
“I want you to hear it from me directly: These people are lying to you, but I trust you to see through it,” Ramaswamy told a crowd on Friday. “We ran an ad about lying. Amy Acton is lying. She has been lying this entire campaign about me, about her record, about her history in this state. The irony is they are lying about an ad that is about lying. That is the truth of the matter. It had nothing to do with childhood abuse, which I will be the No. 1 governor to prosecute when I am the governor of this state because it is wrong, and we together will fight against that across Ohio. That is the truth.
“But they’re changing the subject because they don’t want to answer for their own failures. They don’t want to answer for someone who claimed the COVID death rate was 50% when, in fact, it was less than 1%. They don’t want to answer for her attack ads on me, where she claimed that I’m a murderer. Attacks on my mother that the media was pin-drop silent about. They don’t want to answer for multiple 911 calls across multiple different spouses made by her own daughter over a campaign. They don’t want to answer for that and countless other things. So what do they do? They change the subject to deceive you.”
Ramaswamy has come under fire this week for his decision to spend $4 million on an ad featuring his Acton’s estranged mother, despite Acton not speaking with her mother since 1978, when her stepfather was indicted over allegations he raped her when she was 12 years old.
Ramaswamy, a billionaire biotechnological entrepreneur and former co-lead of the Department of Government Efficiency, has declined to take down the ad despite calls from Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) and Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who is also in a margin-of-error race.
On Friday, he jumped aboard an Ohio Republican Party bus tour of the state.
During his address to the crowd gathered for the bus tour launch at The Local Bar in Strongsville, Ramaswamy underscored the differences between him and Acton.
Ramaswamy said he will “fight for lower costs, bigger paychecks, better schools, safer streets,” he said. “That’s not even about Right versus Left. It shouldn’t be. It is about right versus wrong, and we choose what is right. We choose what is true, what is virtuous, and we need you to fight for the next 11 days to bring every other person who is not in this room out to vote as well. To bring every person who shares our values to the ballot box, which I believe is the majority of people in this state.”
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou introduced the candidates and emphasized the importance of unity before the Nov. 3 elections.
“You have a clear choice,” Triantafilou said. “It’s common sense. Be with your family, love your God, build your country. Or this communist takeover that we’re seeing in places like New York, we’re seeing in places like San Francisco. We cannot have that here in Ohio. So again, the fight that we are waging on this bus tour that kicks off right here is about saving Ohio, and we need your help.”
Republican Party unity is also coming from the top, with President Donald Trump providing political cover for Ramaswamy.
“The Press, in a concerted and well coordinated attack, is trying to get Vivek Ramaswamy to ‘take down the Ad,’” Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social. “Frankly, anybody whose mother spoke about a daughter in that way would normally lead to the daughter being precluded from serving in Office, let alone the Office of Governor. If my mother, the legendary Mary MacLeod Trump, said anything bad about me, the Fake News would play it up.”
The president has since defended the ad multiple times when pressed by reporters.
Other Day 1 stops include in Strongsville for a pancake breakfast, Powell for a Delaware County get-out-the-vote bash, and Circleville for a pumpkin show rally and parade.
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Day 2 will include stops in southwest Ohio, such as Monroe, Hamilton, Cincinnati, and Batavia.
Action has, on average, a 4-point advantage over Ramaswamy in polls, according to polling aggregator RealClearPolitics.