Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s race for Ohio governor swung to “Lean Democrat” in an election forecaster’s ratings as Republicans braced for damage beyond his campaign.
On Friday, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the race out of its Toss Up column after Ramaswamy’s campaign ran an ad featuring his opponent’s estranged mother.
In the ad, Donna Arthur calls her daughter, Democratic nominee Amy Acton, “a liar,” the Associated Press reported. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather was indicted on a charge of raping Acton, the AP added.
Cook editor Jessica Taylor wrote that the ad confirmed the race was “slipping away” from Ramaswamy as Cook moved it to “Lean Democrat,” a rating Cook uses for competitive races where one party has an edge.
A Cook poll taken Oct. 9-13, before the ad surfaced, had Acton ahead 49% to 44%, NBC4 reported. A Fox News poll taken Oct. 15-19, also before the ad became public, had Acton narrowly ahead, 50% to 48%.
Taylor also wrote that the ad was perhaps creating some “collateral damage for fellow Republicans,” noting it was “swiftly condemned by the most high-profile Republicans in the state.”
The same Cook poll showed Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown leading Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) 49% to 43%, NBC4 reported. Cook rates that race a toss-up.
Brown called the video “disgusting” on X and said Husted should condemn it, CNN reported.
Husted told the Associated Press on Wednesday he “would not have run that ad.” Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R-OH), who is running for state auditor, said he “probably wouldn’t run an ad like that,” according to the AP.
At least one other Republican candidate in Ohio personally asked Ramaswamy not to air the ad, a party operative told CNN.
“Republicans in the state probably couldn’t be more p— at him,” the operative said.
On Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), who endorsed Ramaswamy, said the campaign “needs to take it down.”
President Donald Trump’s defense of the ad has escalated each day since the controversy began.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters, “I know nothing about it,” but said he’d heard “the mother went very rogue on the daughter.” On Thursday afternoon, the president escalated by calling DeWine “disloyal to the Republican Party” in a social media post, saying he would use such an ad himself because “it’s called, ‘hitting pay dirt.’”
By Friday morning, Trump was shouting at an NBC News reporter outside the White House after she repeatedly asked whether the sexual abuse allegations mattered to him. He yelled at her to be quiet and called her a “horrible little reporter.”
“To me, that’s something that’s very much fair game,” Trump said of the mother’s attack on her daughter.
Ramaswamy’s campaign has said it will spend $4 million to promote the ad, the AP reported.