OHIO — With eight days left in Ohio’s governor race, Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy is losing venues on his own party’s bus tour and drawing public rebukes from senior Ohio Republicans over a campaign ad built around his Democratic opponent’s estranged mother.
Zeteo reported over the weekend that businesses booked to host stops on the Ohio Republican ticket’s bus tour have begun pulling out since the ad appeared, saying they do not want the publicity a Ramaswamy visit would bring. A brewery in Delaware, Ohio, canceled a scheduled stop, the party scrambled for replacement locations, and a Sunday church service in Westerville came off the tour schedule. “We’re getting calls that people don’t want him there,” a top Ohio Republican told the outlet.
The ad is a one-minute video in which Donna Arthur, the mother of Democratic nominee Dr. Amy Acton, accuses her daughter of lying about her upbringing and urges voters not to elect her. It surfaced online on Oct. 19 with no sponsor named. Ramaswamy acknowledged the next day that his campaign produced it, in a planned $4 million buy running through Election Day, Nov. 3. A spokeswoman told the Associated Press that Arthur was not paid for her appearance.
Acton, Ohio’s health director during the COVID-19 pandemic, has said for years that her stepfather sexually abused her as a child. According to Acton and court records reviewed by USA Today, her stepfather was charged with rape in 1978, pleaded not guilty and left the state; Acton and her siblings were removed from their mother’s custody, and she says she has not spoken to her mother since she was 12. Her brother Philip Stearns backed her account in a statement condemning the ad.
Acton told WOSU, the Columbus public broadcaster, that seeing her mother in the ad was “awful,” and accused Ramaswamy of taking advantage of an older woman she described as clearly unwell.
Ramaswamy has refused to back down. He says Acton has been “repeatedly and serially dishonest” and that her record merits scrutiny. Campaign spokeswoman Connie Luck said the ad will not be removed, called Acton a “serial fabulist,” and pointed to an earlier Acton campaign attack involving Ramaswamy’s mother and a failed Alzheimer’s drug trial — an Acton ad PolitiFact rated “mostly false.”
The sharpest criticism has come from his own party. Gov. Mike DeWine, who endorsed Ramaswamy in January, called the ad “just wrong” on Oct. 22 and urged the campaign to take it down, saying the backstory made it “just more wrong.” DeWine did not withdraw his endorsement, and said that from working with her during the pandemic, “she certainly told the truth.” Secretary of State Frank LaRose and U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, both Republicans on this year’s ballot, said they would not have run the ad. Former Attorney General Dave Yost pushed back after the state party chairman wrote that Republicans were keeping score of the loyal. Vice President JD Vance, by contrast, told Republicans to stop “whining” about the ad, and President Donald Trump defended it as powerful.
Ohio’s largest newspaper has now weighed in against Ramaswamy. The Columbus Dispatch endorsed Acton — a move the Independent noted broke the paper’s policy against endorsing in major races — and described the mother ad as “sinister.” The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the Akron Beacon Journal have also endorsed Acton.
The fallout is showing up in the numbers. A Marist poll released Oct. 20 put Acton ahead 50 percent to 43 percent among likely voters, with independents backing her widely. The Cook Political Report has since moved the race from Tossup to Lean Democrat; other forecasters still rate it a toss-up. Early voting is already under way ahead of Nov. 3.
Sources: Columbus Dispatch, USA Today, Zeteo, Associated Press, Marist Poll — Oct. 26, 2026
