The "fierce, bipartisan backlash" to Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, left Republicans in Ohio and Washington reeling Wednesday, according to a report from Time.
Both Ramaswamy and Vice President JD Vance doubled down on the strategy, Time reported. Vance, who is from Ohio, campaigned near Cincinnati on Wednesday and treated the ad as a "game-changing October surprise," according to Time. “I’ll be honest with you, whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern,” Vance told reporters. “But I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted,” he said of Republicans he accused of “whining more about that advertisement” than about congressional Democrats.
Privately, however, "old-guard Republicans" were baffled that Ramaswamy would use Acton’s own mother, who has not spoken to her daughter since 1978, when she defended Acton’s stepfather after he was indicted for raping Acton as a child, Time reported. Some predicted the ad will draw more empathy and interest in Acton from voters and turn them away from Ramaswamy.
“We’ve lost the plot,” one Republican strategist told Time. “We had a real good chance and then we do this two weeks out.”
A second strategist added, “We now deserve to lose this race.”
The ad has rippled through races up and down the Ohio ballot. “I would not have run that ad,” said Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who is in a tight race against Democrat Sherrod Brown, according to The Associated Press. Other Republicans in the state told Time the ad has all the markings of "a misfire," especially among women.
Recent polls show Acton leading but not running away with the race, Time reported, citing a Marist poll this week that has her up seven points. A Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll reported by Political Wire last week had Acton at 50 percent to Ramaswamy’s 44 percent. Ohio is a state Trump won three times, never by fewer than eight points. If elected, Acton would be the first Democratic governor since 2007.
Ramaswamy’s campaign confirmed it paid for the ad. Campaign manager Jonathan Ewing insisted to Axios: “This is a campaign-ending moment for Amy Acton. The people who know her best keep warning Ohioans about her.”