Ohio venues that played host to Republican campaign stops are being swamped with negative online reviews, and some are declining to host events with gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at all, Newsweek reported on Monday.
After GOP events over the weekend, places including Kick-N-Ax in Zanesville, Izzy’s in Monroe, and The Local Bar in Strongsville drew a rush of one-star Google reviews, the outlet says, and a few reviewers attached pictures of Ramaswamy at the venue.
The anger traces to a Ramaswamy ad that uses Democratic opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother to call her a “liar.” Acton says her stepfather sexually abused her as a child and that she hasn’t seen her mother since testifying against him as a 12-year-old.
Two venues have already bailed on events. USA Today’s Jessie Balmert reported that the Old Dog Ale House & Brewery in Delaware canceled a Friday event, and the Ohio GOP says it found another site. Elliot’s Wood Fired Kitchen in Newark said on Facebook that it wouldn’t host Tuesday’s stop, and the party’s bus tour page now says the location is “to be announced.”
Sen. Jon Husted, who’s on the tour and locked in a tight battle with former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, said he “would not have run that ad.” Ramaswamy, for his part, defended it on Fox & Friends, saying “We’re standing for truth.”
The Ramaswamy ad has triggered such intense backlash that the Cleveland Plain Dealer has made an exception to its own political endorsement rules to issue a condemnation of the GOP candidate.
President Donald Trump, however, has stood behind Ramaswamy and stood behind the ad.