9 hours agoRamaswamy says his campaign is behind the ad featuring his opponent’s mother. Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy admitted his campaign is responsible for an ad featuring Democratic opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother urging voters not to vote for her daughter. “It’s an ad for our campaign,” Ramaswamy said Tuesday, adding that he “would love for this race and this election to be about substantive issues affecting Ohioans. And unfortunately, Amy Acton has been hiding from those issues. She doesn’t want to debate me. She doesn’t allow cameras at her events. And I think her history of continually spreading, certainly during this campaign, some defamatory and derogatory lies about me and my family, deserves to be closely examined. “I have never met Amy. Acton, which is a shame,” he said, noting that he wishes he had met his rival. “I never met his mother either. She was not compensated.” In the controversial video, Acton’s mother called her daughter a “liar.” “I love my daughter. But when I saw her lying about her opponent, it’s not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She’s a liar,” Donna Arthur said in the video. “Don’t vote for people who lie. Don’t let her become your ruler. If you think she will make your life better, you are fooling yourself. “It will only get worse.” The Acton campaign harshly criticized Ramaswamy in a statement Wednesday. “Along with sexual abusers and predators,” Acton campaign spokeswoman Addie Bullock said in the statement issued Wednesday. “Ramaswamy is showing Ohio exactly who he is: a selfish billionaire who will do or say anything for his own benefit, no matter who it hurts along the way. The stakes in this race have never been higher and the contrast has never been clearer: Vivek Ramaswamy is completely unfit to lead Ohio.” Acton’s campaign spokesperson also issued a statement about the announcement Tuesday. “Staying married to her rapist stepfather until the day he died shows Ohioans exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is,” Acton campaign spokeswoman Addie Bullock said in the statement issued Tuesday. “Ramaswamy has taken every opportunity possible to campaign with pedophiles, abusers and sexual predators while accepting more than $100,000 from Epstein associates and mocking Dr. Acton for being a survivor of child sexual abuse,” the statement said. “Ramaswamy will do anything, including harboring child sexual predators, to get what he wants. This is not only disturbing; it’s disqualifying. Ohio deserves better.”
