Poll Shows Ramaswamy Slipping Behind Acton After Ad Featuring Her Estranged Mother

A private Republican poll shows Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy trailing Democrat Amy Acton by 8 points after he released an ad featuring her estranged mother, Axios reported. A month earlier, the same pollster had him 2 points behind. The poll found 86% of respondents had heard of the ad, and those respondents said by a 2-to-1 margin it made them more likely to vote for Acton. In the spot, Donna Arthur calls her daughter a liar and says she needs help. Acton has not spoken to her mother since she was 12. Reports say Arthur left her two children to go away with her husband, who was indicted for allegedly raping Acton as a girl. Local journalist D.J. Byrnes leaked the ad last week, and the Ohio firm Strategy Group made it. Republicans on and off Ramaswamy's team reportedly warned it would backfire, and Zeteo reported that some campaign staff were close to quitting.

The left-leaning outlets Talking Points Memo and The New Republic treat the ad as a self-inflicted failure. TPM leads with the Axios poll numbers and calls the episode a debacle. It ties the ad to a Trump-style embrace of rule-breaking and notes that Ramaswamy said he wanted to send that message. The New Republic's headline stresses that his own aides warned against it. It relies on Zeteo for a Trump adviser's criticism, other Republicans' condemnation and the staff-exodus report, and calls the ad distasteful. The right-leaning Daily Wire mentions the ad only in its opening, as an example of today's boundary-free political ads. It then turns to a 1976 Ford campaign ad that was never aired after the Secret Service, Ford's campaign manager and a focus group reacted badly. It leaves out the poll, the warnings and the staffing reports. Both sides call the ad incendiary and describe it as using Acton's estranged mother. Axios, listed as alternative, supplies the poll and stresses Republican anxiety, which matches the left's emphasis.