Gov. Mike DeWine offered his first comments on the ad from Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy which features the estranged mother of Ramaswamy's Democratic opponent Amy Acton. DeWine called the ad "wrong" and "deeply, deeply troubling", but made it clear he wouldn't be withdrawing his endorsement of Ramaswamy.
"The ad on its face is deeply, deeply troubling," DeWine told reporters in an impromptu gaggle Thursday morning. "But when you know the rest of the story, when you know the back story, 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 the two children never saw the mother after that. When you know that it, just to me, makes it more serious. It makes it just more wrong."
"It's wrong to run this ad," DeWine added. "I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to to take this down. It's just wrong."
But when asked if he would be rescinding his endorsement of Ramaswamy, DeWine said: "I'm not changing the endorsement. I endorse the whole ticket."
Ramaswamy took credit for the ad on Tuesday night, after it had been leaked on social media without a "paid for by" disclaimer. Ramaswamy also said the campaign would spend $4 million on a TV and digital campaign featuring the ad. DeWine wouldn't say whether he had spoken to either Ramaswamy or Acton, who DeWine worked closely with in the first months of the COVID pandemic before she resigned as his Ohio Department of Health director in June 2020.
In the ad, Acton's mother Donna Arthur claims her daughter is lying about her past. Acton has talked publicly about being sexually abused and homeless as a child, sometimes living in a tent. Court documents show Arthur's husband Cledith was indicted for sexually assaulting Acton when she was 12, and Donna Arthur lost custody of Acton and her brother Phil Stearns. Cledith Arthur left the state before he was tried. The Arthurs were still married when he died in 2004.
DeWine said he viewed the ad through his experience as a prosecutor in Greene County in the 1970s and his eight years as Ohio's attorney general before he was elected governor, he met women who had been raped and sexually assaulted.
"These were very, very brave women that we worked with. These were women who were willing to go into court, tell total strangers the story of probably the worst day in their life. And so my admiration for them, I can't even describe it," DeWine said. "They continue to continue to bear that burden. And it was with them their whole life."
But DeWine said as a lifelong Republican, "I endorse the whole ticket. On that ticket are some amazing people, almost all of whom I have worked with in the past, most of them for many, many years. And they're experienced. They're good people. They're great public servants."
DeWine specifically noted U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, who DeWine appointed to the Senate last year after JD Vance was elected vice president.
On Monday, Acton's campaign released a statement from Stearns saying, "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.” Acton's campaign released a response ad with her brother refuting their mother's claims on her website, but it's unclear where and when the ad might air.
