An op-ed for the longtime conservative publication National Review launched a blistering attack on Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, for acting like a candidate certain he is “going down in flames.”
Jeffrey Blehar, a National Review staff writer, made the case in a column published Wednesday, less than two weeks before Election Day.
Blehar pointed to an ad Ramaswamy’s campaign released this week featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton. Ramaswamy trails Acton by three to five points in the polls.
The conservative writer noted that he had avoided covering “the Democratic wave threatening to hit Ohio” in part because his “gag reflex kicks in at the thought of having to write about Vivek Ramaswamy.”
He also revived his review of a December 2023 Republican presidential debate, in which he wrote that Ramaswamy's confidence in his debate claims “marks him out as either deeply weird or as a man who simply has decided to forfeit his dignity for profit.”
“But even before Trump’s mad moves shook up the 2026 map in unpredictable ways, Ramaswamy already had the stench of born-loserdom wafting off him,” Blehar wrote.
“What Ohioans are learning about now is the real reason Vivek Ramaswamy is a mismatch for the very idea of electoral politics: He’s an insincere and unlikable weasel,” he added.
In the ad, which began airing Tuesday, Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, calls her daughter a liar and urges Ohioans not to elect her.
Police and court records show Acton was 12 when her stepfather was charged with raping her. She and her brother were removed from Arthur’s home after he was indicted, The Washington Post reported.
Ramaswamy said Tuesday he is putting $4 million behind the 60-second ad, the Post reported.
“I would not have run that ad,” Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who is also on the ballot this fall, said amid a campaign appearance with Ramaswamy in Ohio on Wednesday.
Vice President JD Vance defended Ramaswamy during a campaign stop for Husted, telling reporters he was “a little bit disgusted” that Republicans were “whining more about that advertisement” than about Democrats’ plans.
In his column, Blehar wrote, “It was a staggering act of bad taste, a move made for absolutely no gain whatsoever — are voters supposed to hold Acton’s sexual molestation by a family member against her? — and Ramaswamy only made things worse by doubling down on it yesterday.”
On Tuesday, Ramaswamy said, according to Fox19, “It is an ad from our campaign. I would love for this race and this election to be about the substantive issues that impact Ohioans. Unfortunately, Amy Acton has been hiding from those issues. She won’t debate me.”
Blehar wrote, “His oleaginous response that ‘this is justified because she won’t debate me’ is only going to disgust voters further. And the simple fact that this ad even exists tells you everything you need to know about how dire the governor’s race in Ohio is for Vivek Ramaswamy.”
“Candidates on the path to victory don’t take desperate swings like this. Only candidates certain that they’re going down in flames and have nothing left to lose reach that deep down into the gutter,” he continued.