In the final days before the November election, candidates for statewide office have been zigzagging Ohio to make their closing arguments to voters.
Led by Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy and incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican statewide ticket is driving across Ohio in a bright red bus.
But since last week, the Ohio GOP has relocated at least three of those events, according to an original schedule, including from Old Dog Alehouse & Brewery in Delaware and Tom’s Ice Cream Bowl in Zanesville to other venues.
Around 100 voters filled the inside of a Vance Outdoors hunting store Tuesday morning in Hebron, where a massive American flag had been hung below taxidermied wildlife.
There, Ramaswamy was joined by his running mate, Senate President Rob McColley, candidates for attorney general and secretary of state Keith Faber and Robert Sprague, and incumbent Justice Dan Hawkins and Colleen O'Donnell, who are running for the Supreme Court of Ohio.
“This next week determines the future of our state, and I think this election comes down to two basic questions. Put aside all of the media, the noise, the 30-second bits,” Ramaswamy told attendees. “Who do you think is going to bring the American Dream back to being a reality in this state?”
That Licking County event was originally scheduled for nearby Elliot’s Wood Fired Kitchen, which could not be reached by the Statehouse News Bureau for comment.
Spokespeople for the Ohio GOP and for Ramaswamy declined comment when asked about the venue changes. And Ramaswamy did not take questions from journalists before leaving for his next event in Mt. Vernon.
But the changing schedule comes as he faces blowback from both sides of the aisle for the advertisement he’s been airing featuring Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton’s estranged mother. In it, her mother, Donna Arthur, says Acton is a “liar.”
She lost custody of Acton in 1978, after Arthur’s husband was charged with 12-year-old Acton’s rape. The two fled Ohio, and Cledith Arthur was never convicted of rape.
A few of his fellow GOP candidates, including Husted, distanced themselves from the ad as President Donald Trump and Ramaswamy have doubled down on it.
“It’s awful see her this way,” Acton told WOSU last week. ”It’s even more incredible to see that my opponent has taken advantage of someone who is clearly not well, who is older, and this is totally in line with who he is.
The bitter contest for governor ends Tuesday, when voters will decide on entirely new slate of statewide leaders for the first time in eight years.
