Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine condemned fellow Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's ad featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton's estranged mother and called on the campaign to take it down.
But DeWine did not rescind his endorsement of the GOP nominee, and Ramaswamy isn't taking down the ad, Ramaswamy's spokeswoman said.
The ad, airing through Election Day, features Acton's estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her daughter of lying about her upbringing. Acton hasn't talked to Arthur since she was 12 years old, when Arthur's husband and Acton's stepfather was charged with rape for sexually abusing a young Acton.
Ramaswamy has doubled down on the ad, saying that voters should know that those closest to Acton think she's a liar.
election: JD Vance 'disgusted' by GOP backlash to Vivek Ramaswamy's ad
"It was just wrong to run this ad," said DeWine after talking about his history as a county prosecutor defending child rape victims. "The ad on its face is deeply, deeply troubling, but when you know the rest of the story, when you know the backstory, when you know that the husband of the mom was indicted by a grand jury after hearing testimony and that he took off along with the mother and that two children never saw the mother after that. When you know that, it just, to me, makes it more serious. It makes it just more wrong."
DeWine called on Ramaswamy to take down the ad, but said he wouldn't pull his support of Ramaswamy and the GOP ticket, which includes his former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted running in the U.S. Senate race.
"I’m not changing (my) endorsement. I endorse the whole ticket, as you know," DeWine told reporters. "I’m a Republican. I endorse a whole ticket. In that ticket are some amazing people, almost all of whom I have worked with in the past."
Ramaswamy's campaign doubles down on ad
DeWine also referenced an Acton news release that accused Ramaswamy’s mother of participating in a "pump and dump" scheme to make an Alzheimer’s disease drug trial look better than it was. No one has been charged in that case, and PolitiFact called an Acton ad on the issue "mostly false."
"That was wrong. That shouldn’t have happened," DeWine said before pivoting back to the ad with Acton's estranged mother. "This is on TV with $4 million behind it."
Ramaswamy spokeswoman Connie Luck said they aren't taking down the ad.
"Governor DeWine is correct that the first and only candidate to attack the mother of her opponent in this race was Amy Acton. She slanderously lied about Vivek’s mother this fall, without shame," Luck said. "We refuse to accept the media’s double standards when Democrats have regularly used family members of President Trump, RFK Jr, and other Republicans in ads. Voters shouldn’t buy it."
How Republicans are responding
DeWine’s comments came a day after Vice President JD Vance told Republicans to stop whining about the ad.
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou said on social media that the GOP was keeping score about who was "really with you and who just posts and pretends" in a since-deleted post on X.
Former Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who ran against Ramaswamy in the GOP primary, responded: "Chairman, I’m old enough to remember a time when the score we kept was against the other side. You’ve got much better arguments to win this election than veiled threats against your own people. Please make them."
Fellow Republicans on the 2026 ballot, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Husted, said they would not have run the ad.
DeWine endorsed Ramaswamy for governor in January 2026 after the biotech entrepreneur picked Ohio Senate President Rob McColley as his running mate. But DeWine has spoken favorably of Acton, his former health director during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I'm not going to get into anything in regard to who people should vote for today. In regard to telling the truth, my experience with her, working closely with her every single day, was she certainly told the truth," DeWine told reporters on Oct. 22.
State government reporter Jessie Balmert can be reached at jbalmert@usatodayco.com or @jbalmert on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio governor says Ramaswamy should take down controversial ad
