Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy shakes hands with US President Donald Trump during a rally at Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio, US, October 3, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) chief strategist apologized and deleted his post of an attack ad featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother.
Dan Hauser, whose X profile describes him as Lee’s chief strategist, announced the deletion on X Tuesday afternoon.
The ad, which began circulating online Monday night, shows Donna Arthur calling her daughter a liar, The New York Times reported. Acton is running for Ohio governor against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.
“My apologies. I posted the video of Amy Acton’s mother without understanding the details behind their relationship and the very serious accusations that caused their issues. After researching it, and the disturbing allegations, I have deleted the video post,” Hauser wrote.
“I have four daughters and a wife that I need to look in the face and hope they’re proud of what they see,” Hauser wrote in a later post. “I got this one wrong.”
Conservative writer Pedro L. Gonzalez wrote on X, “Mike Lee’s chief strategist did not take five seconds to look up whether Amy Acton had been sexually abused as a child, which would have also explained to him why Acton and her brother have been estranged from her.”
The abuse allegations date to 1978, when Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was charged with raping her when she was younger than 13, according to court records Democratic ad maker Justin Barasky posted on X.
Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty in July 1978, and a judge ordered his arrest that October after he left his last known address, the records show. The Times reported that Donna Arthur stood by her husband rather than her daughter.
“Our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core,” Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, said in a statement Tuesday.
In the ad, Donna Arthur does not mention the abuse allegations and instead disputes Acton’s account of living in a tent as a child, the Times reported.
“Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself,” Donna Arthur says in the ad.
HuffPost reported that Ramaswamy’s campaign did not claim credit for the ad or distance itself from it.
“We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke out about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth,” campaign spokeswoman Connie Luck said in a statement shared on X by reporter Jessie Balmert.
About two hours later, the Ohio Democratic Party wrote on X, “Vivek Ramaswamy is defending a rapist. Ohioans will never tolerate the disgusting and vile attacks that Vivek Ramaswamy has perpetrated his entire campaign.”
Pod Save America co-host Jon Lovett wrote on X, “Maybe the most disgusting political ad in living memory.”
Acton’s campaign answered with its own ad, in which her brother says he was abused but that his sister was abused far worse as she tried to protect him, the Times reported.