Donald Trump issued a swift rebuke against Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, who on Thursday said gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was “wrong” to release an ad critical of his Democratic rival Amy Acton that featured her estranged mother.
DeWine had implored Ramaswamy to take the ad down, but hours later, Trump urged Ramaswamy to keep airing it and accused the Republican governor of disloyalty.
Acton, who has led the Republican nominee Ramaswamy in recent polls of the governor’s race, has said she has not seen her mother Donna Arthur for decades, after her mother married a man who sexually abused Acton when she was 12 years old and stayed with him even after police stepped in.
Calling the ad “deeply, deeply troubling”, DeWine told reporters at the Ohio state capital. “It’s wrong to run this ad,” the Associated Press reported .
“I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down,” the governor added.
The video, which began circulating on social media earlier this week and which Ramaswamy’s campaign later told Ohio media outlets is their work, shows Arthur calling her daughter “a liar” and saying she should not be put in charge of the state. Ramaswamy’s campaign said later in the week it would spend $4m to air the ad across the state.
DeWine noted that “family members have always historically been off limits” and Acton had earlier this year mentioned Ramaswamy’s mother’s involvement in an alleged “pump and dump” scheme, though with less prominence than the Ramaswamy ad.
On Truth Social Thursday afternoon, Trump excoriated DeWine for his comments, saying DeWine was “disloyal to the Republican party”.
“He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing,” Trump wrote. “I suggested, on the other hand, that Vivek should keep it up, and let everyone listen to the mother of a defective, dishonest, and incapable Candidate, explain how the daughter is a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!”
Connie Luck, a spokesperson for the Republican’s campaign, 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.”
Speaking to reporters in Cincinnati on Wednesday, Vice-President JD Vance dismissed criticism of Ramaswamy’s campaign. “Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern,” Vance said.
In a statement released by Acton’s campaign, her brother, Philip Stearns, called the ad “a despicable low” for Ramaswamy, and noted that he and his sister were removed from Arthur’s custody after her stepfather was arrested.
The Republican US senator Jon Husted, who is facing a election bid that could decide which party controls the chamber in the 3 November midterm elections, joined in the condemnation. “I would not have run that ad,” he told the Associated Press.
His Democratic opponent, former senator Sherrod Brown, has called the video “disgusting”, and said all candidates should denounce it.
Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, also criticized Ramaswamy, telling the Columbus-area broadcaster ABC 6 : “I probably wouldn’t run an ad like that, but every candidate gets to make their own decision.”
DeWine nonetheless declined to drop his endorsement of Ramaswamy in the governor’s race, saying he wanted to support the “full ticket” of Republican candidates in the midterms.
