JD Vance inadvertently attacks 'whining' Republican he's campaigning with amid ad fallout

Vice President JD Vance attacked Republicans “whining” about an Ohio political ad while campaigning for a Republican senator who also criticized the ad.

Vance made the remarks to reporters Wednesday at a campaign stop in Sharonville, Ohio, where he appeared alongside Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) and Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy, according to The Associated Press.

Vance never named Husted, but the vice president’s attack on Republicans who criticized the ad still reached the Republican ticket he came to promote.

Ramaswamy’s 60-second ad features Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, former Ohio health director Amy Acton, calling her daughter “a liar,” the AP reported.

Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather was indicted on a charge of raping Acton when she was 12, according to the AP.

Ramaswamy, who narrowly trails Acton in polls, is putting $4 million behind the ad, The Washington Post reported.

Speaking to reporters in Sharonville, Vance said, “I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.”

“So I would say to Ohio Republicans, do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do,” Vance continued, according to The New York Times.

The vice president said he “wasn’t even supposed to talk about” the ad but “couldn’t help [himself].”

Vance also said it was “not really my concern” whether the ad was appropriate and that he was focused on supporting Republican candidates in their midterm races, the AP reported.

Democrats and Republicans criticized the ad after it became public Tuesday, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who clashed with Ramaswamy in the 2024 presidential primary. In a social media post, she described Ramaswamy as "a bad guy."

As Wednesday's campaign event was unfolding in Ohio, Husted, one of the candidates Vance showed up to support, told the AP, “I would not have run that ad.”

The GOP senator is facing a tough battle against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who called the spot “disgusting” on Tuesday.

The AP noted that Husted did not publicly raise the ad during his joint appearance with Vance and Ramaswamy.

“Husted says this as Vance defends the ad and says he’s sick of the Republicans who are criticizing it instead of focusing on winning,” political journalist David Weigel wrote on X.

Former Obama administration spokesman Tommy Vietor posted on X, “Husted has more integrity than @VivekGRamaswamy and @JDVance.”