CORRECTION: The ad in the post below was initially reported as having been produced by the Ramaswamy campaign, but other outlets, including The New York Times, are now reporting that its origin is unclear and we have updated this post to reflect that.
Well, Ohio Republicans have certainly hit a new low.
The “October Surprise” against Vivek Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, is an ad featuring her own mother behind a heavily Vaselined lens, talking about how Amy is a lying liar and therefore would make a terrible governor of Ohio.
As you would expect, right-wing media is already breathlessly reporting the ad as a “bombshell” with the usual cretins over on X the Everything App gasping over how truly terrible Acton must be for her own mother to turn against her like that.
Except the thing is, Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, has not even seen her daughter since she was 12, when both of her children were taken away from her due to her neglect and the fact that she married a pedophile, with prior accusations, who was charged with sexually assaulting Amy.
According to an article from the Youngstown Vindicator, years before Acton was ever involved in politics (and, in fact, had just been tapped by Republican Governor Mike DeWine to serve as the director of Ohio’s Department of Health):
One guy finally hung around for marriage. That’s when Amy’s life got worse. She was between age 9 and 12.
The guy had accusations of molestation events in his past, she said. With his abuse of Amy, there was finally enough evidence that officials were called in and criminal charges were filed.
It was winter, and the family was living in a tent in a campground outside Youngstown.
“I was lucky that it got bad enough, because it got me out of there.”
She was finally able to move in with her dad and his relatives. Her Liberty life kicked in, and it would be a better life. Money was always tight. But they were safe and there was food. She eventually would become Liberty homecoming queen – Class of 1984. […]
She hasn’t seen or heard from her mom since a day in court after that long-ago arrest.
“In the courthouse after they were charged, I went to give her a kiss, and she just turned her cheek away. That was the last time I ever saw her.”
Out on bond, mom and her husband skipped town and have not been heard from since.
Well, she certainly seems like a lovely person and caring mother. You will note that, in the following video, the thing that Arthur says Acton lied about was that they lived in a tent for a period of time. That’s what her issue is. Not the fact that she, you know, married a pedophile who abused her daughter.
Transcript:
My name is Donna Arthur and I’m Amy Acton’s mother. I worked at Children and Family Service Association, building one of the first two sexual abuse programs in America.
Which she apparently used as a dating service? Is that how she met her husband?
I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent — and it’s not easy for a mother to say this — but Amy has a serious problem.
She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life.
My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn’t doing that.
Don’t vote for people who lie. Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself. It will only get worse.
Because I am gracious and try not to comment on people’s looks, even when they are terrible people, I am going to quote Ohio reporter DJ Byrnes, who wrote “If I wanted to prove that Dr. Acton had been lying about spending some of her childhood living in a tent, I would not have summoned her mother, who, at this point in time, certainly looks like a woman who had her daughter living in a tent during her childhood,” and note that he is not wrong. I mean, if that’s what you’re going for, at least make the woman look more like May Robson at the end of Lady for a Day than at the beginning.
Again, Amy Acton has not seen Donna Arthur since she was 12 years old, when the state took her away from Arthur and her pedophile husband due to the abuse and neglect she suffered at their hands. It also would have had to have been a fairly dire situation, as child abuse was something the government was just starting to take seriously at that time. Congress didn’t even pass the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) until 1974, establishing a framework for defining child abuse and neglect, just a few years before Acton and her brother were removed from their mother’s custody.
This information has been publicly available for years, so it is pretty unlikely that the Ramaswamy campaign was not aware of it, and yet they or someone acting on their behalf decided that it would be a great idea to put Arthur in their big October Surprise ad, to call her daughter a liar. Despite theories in comments on right-wing media posts, it’s exceedingly unlikely that Dr. Acton released the ad of her own mother calling her a liar herself in order to make Ramaswamy look bad with a triple bank shot.
Since the ad has been released, Dr. Acton’s brother has released a statement in solidarity with his sister.
“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” said Philip Stearns, Dr. Acton’s brother. “After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core — a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”
He’s not wrong.
Stearns has previously credited his sister with saving his life when they were children and protecting him from the abuse and neglect they both suffered.
This is not the first time that the Ramaswamy campaign have found themselves in bed with a child abuser. Just last week, The Bulwark reported that one of their ads, which highlighted the plight of a woman who was very upset about her property taxes going up, also featured her husband, a registered sex offender convicted of “gross sexual imposition” with a 13-year-old girl.
They’re still running the ad, though they claimed they cut the husband out. (Other sources say the ad is still running as it was.) Because, clearly, they see nothing wrong with a woman who stands by her pedophile husband. (Though I can’t imagine that was what Tammy Wynette was singing about.)
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It’s not yet clear if the ad was produced by the Ramaswamy campaign or by a sympathetic PAC.
It is, however pretty clear that the Ramaswamy campaign is at a desperate point. Acton has been leading him in the polls and his overall net rating has him doing worse with independent voters than any Republican gubernatorial nominee since 2000. He’s also wildly unpopular with his target audience of Trump voters, as many of them have recently decided that they really hate Indian people. I guess that’s why it’s not a great idea to cast one’s lot in with bigots, as one can never be sure who they’re going to decide they hate next.
If anything, this is going to backfire. Because people are going to see that woman obviously lying about her estranged daughter, and then they’re going to look at Amy Acton who not only survived her and her husband, but went on to become not just a doctor but the head of Ohio’s health department, and think “Damn, that’s pretty impressive. Good for her.”
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Cthulhu's Taint, just when you think they can't go any lower, they find the portal to Hell at the Earth's core.
Let me guess! Sleazy E paid for that ad...