Vivek Ramaswamy airs Amy Acton ad and fails the decency test
By Adele Rutherford · Reporting from Atlanta ·
By using Amy Acton's estranged mother in a campaign ad, Vivek Ramaswamy drew condemnation from Ohio voters and proved he lacks the temperament to govern.
Vivek Ramaswamy is wrong. In the race for governor of Ohio, he has decided that the private trauma of his opponent is fair game for a television spot. This is not a bold strategy. It is a failure of judgment. By airing an advertisement featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, Ramaswamy has abandoned the process of civic debate for a scorched-earth tactic. He is not testing Acton's fitness to lead. He is testing how much cruelty the Ohio electorate will tolerate before it turns.
A record of calculated cruelty
The facts of the matter are found in the records, not the rhetoric. According to NBC News, public records and newspaper clippings show that Amy Acton's mother and stepfather faced years of legal and financial trouble. The mother lost custody of her children. Acton has not seen her mother since she was 12 years old. More gravely, a grand jury indicted Acton's stepfather on charges of sexually abusing her.
Despite this, Ramaswamy aired an ad where the mother calls Acton a liar and tells voters to reject her. CNN reports that the Ramaswamy campaign committed $4 million to run the spot. When questioned, Ramaswamy claimed the ad had "nothing, nothing to do with childhood abuse, sexual abuse." He argued that such ads are "absolutely acceptable" under the standards of modern political advertising.
This is a lawyer's lie. You cannot feature a woman who lost custody of her child and ignore the reasons why that custody was lost. To use the mother's voice while erasing the stepfather's indictment is a deliberate act of omission. It is an attempt to weaponize a victim's history while pretending the history does not exist.
The tool that destroys the rule
The strongest case for the ad is the one made by Donald Trump. He asked, "Why shouldn't somebody use that?" if a mother calls her daughter a liar. The argument is that a parent's testimony is a unique insight into a candidate's character. If a mother says her daughter is unfit, the advocate for the ad argues that voters have a right to hear it.
That reasoning fails because it ignores the reliability of the witness. In any court, a witness who has lost custody of her children and whose partner was indicted for abusing those children would be subject to intense scrutiny. The testimony is not a neutral insight. It is the product of a broken and abusive household.
When a candidate uses such a tool, he creates a new rule for the road. He suggests that no boundary—not even the trauma of sexual abuse—is off-limits if it can score a point. This is the same mechanism we saw in the 2024 United States presidential election. That cycle saw the normalization of aggressive, personal attacks and the blurring of boundaries between private trauma and public fitness for office.
Each time we lower the bar, we spend the capital of our institutional legitimacy. Legitimacy is a stock that spends fast and refills slowly. Ramaswamy is spending it all on a $4 million gamble.
The cost of the spotlight
The reaction to the ad suggests the gamble may fail. Former president Barack Obama told The Washington Post that Ramaswamy "showed desperation for the spotlight and a lack of decency." Even within his own party, the move was seen as a mistake. Republican Governor Mike DeWine stated the ad was "deeply, deeply troubling" and "just more wrong" when one knows the full story.
The voters are not all convinced by the tactic. CNN spoke with Kari Freudenberger, a substitute teacher who called the ad "heinous and horrible." She noted that the ad showed a judgment of character she no longer wants in politics. Even those who are skeptical of Acton, such as nurse Cherise Wilson, noted the pain of exploiting a survivor of abuse.
RTÉ reports that polls currently give Democrats a slight lead in the race. Ramaswamy is operating on the belief that a loyal base will reward a norm violation. He is betting that the "dirty game" of politics justifies the means. But there is a difference between a dirty game and a dead one. When you destroy the basic rules of decency, you leave nothing for the winner to govern.
Ramaswamy has mistaken a lack of boundaries for a sign of strength. By deploying a mother who lost her children to a daughter who survived her stepfather, he has not proven Acton is a liar. He has only proven that he is willing to use any tool, regardless of who it hurts. This tactic will likely alienate the moderate suburban voters who decide Ohio elections. In his rush to win the spotlight, Vivek Ramaswamy has shown he lacks the temperament to hold the office.
Sources
- NBC News: Ramaswamy ad puts Acton’s estranged mother in spotlight as records reveal family’s troubled past
- The Washington Post: Obama rips into Ramaswamy over attack ad: ‘There’s no line he won’t cross’
- CNN: Ramaswamy and Trump gamble on an incendiary ad, as Ohio shows signs it might turn purple again
- RTÉ: Obama blasts Trump while campaigning for US midterms