COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday called on Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign to pull a television ad featuring Dr. Amy Acton’s estranged mother, calling the spot “deeply, deeply troubling.”
DeWine, who has endorsed Ramaswamy in the race to succeed him as governor, said the ad ignores the Acton family’s history. According to a release issued by the group Ohioans for Amy Acton, the ad features Acton’s mother, who the release says remained married until his death to the man it identifies as having raped Acton.
“The ad on its face is deeply, deeply troubling,” DeWine said, according to the release. “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.”
DeWine said that history makes the ad “more serious” and “more wrong.”
“So it’s wrong to run this ad, and even at this late time … I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down,” DeWine said, according to the release. “It’s just, it’s just wrong.”
Acton, a Democrat and former director of the Ohio Department of Health, is running against Ramaswamy for governor this year. The release did not specify when or where the ad has aired.
The information contained in this story was obtained from a release issued by Ohioans for Amy Acton.
