Ohio venues cancel Vivek Ramaswamy events amid major backlash over advertisement featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother.
The cancellations come days before the November 3 midterm elections, as Ramaswamy faces criticism from Democrats and fellow Republicans over the campaign advertisement. The controversy centres on a 60-second advertisement produced by Ramaswamy’s campaign that features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her daughter of lying about her childhood and personal history. The Ohio Republican Party’s bus tour website now lists the location of the event as “to be announced.
The Ohio Republican Party said it had selected a new location for the event. Other businesses and event hosts have also reconsidered hosting Ramaswamy’s campaign tour at their venues as people are leaving one-star reviews for these sites on Google “We’re getting calls that people don’t want him there,” a top Ohio Republican told Zeteo, a news website founded by Mehdi Hasan. The report claimed that some business owners explicitly said that they don’t want public anger.
Several venues in Ohio have withdrawn from hosting campaign events featuring Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as backlash intensifies over an advertisement targeting his Democratic rival, Amy Acton, and featuring her estranged mother. Venues that already hosted GOP events over the weekend have received a wave of one-star Google reviews, including Kick-N-Ax in Zanesville, Izzy’s in Monroe, and The Local Bar Strongsville. Some reviewers included photos of Ramaswamy at the venues.
The Old Dog Ale House & Brewery in Delaware, Ohio, cancelled a Republican campaign event featuring Ramaswamy on Friday, according to USA Today reporter Jessie Balmert. Elliot’s Wood Fired Kitchen in Newark said in the comments section of a recent Facebook post that it would not host the Ohio GOP’s planned event on Tuesday, Newsweek reported.
Acton has said she has not spoken to her mother since she was 12 years old. Arthur lost custody of her children decades ago after her husband, Cledith Arthur, was charged with sexually abusing Acton when she was a child.
“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,” Arthur said in the advertisement. She says she grew up living in a tent. She’s lied her entire life,” she said Acton, a former director of the Ohio Department of Health, has spoken publicly about experiencing childhood abuse and homelessness. “It’s wrong to run this ad,” DeWine said, describing it as “deeply, deeply troubling”. Ramaswamy said he did not start the fight, but he is finishing it after he found himself in this fight. He said his mother was also defamed to media silence.
“She is a liar. She lies about her past. None of that is true. Her brother, Philip Stearns, has defended her account of their childhood and criticized Ramaswamy for using the family’s history in a political advertisement. He pleaded not guilty, was indicted by a grand jury and subsequently failed to appear in court. He later died. The advertisement has prompted criticism from prominent Republicans, including Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who urged Ramaswamy’s campaign to stop airing it. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.