Vance tells Republicans to 'stop whining' about controversial Ohio attack ad
The ad by Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy features his Democratic rival's estranged mother, who she has not seen since her stepfather was charged with sexual abuse in her childhood.
Vance tells Republicans to 'stop whining' about controversial Ohio attack ad
US Vice-President JD Vance has called on fellow Republicans to stop "whining" over a controversial attack ad that showed a Democratic candidate’s estranged mother accusing her of lying.
While campaigning in Ohio for Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor, Vance said he was "a little bit disgusted" by criticism from members of his own party.
In the ad, Donna Arthur, the mother of Democratic candidate Amy Acton, said her daughter "lied her entire life".
It does not mention that Arthur's husband was charged with raping Acton when she was a child.
The Ramaswamy campaign has taken credit for the ad and has spent millions to have it aired across the state.
Acton's brother is among those who have denounced the ad, saying that turning alleged sexual assault into "a political talking point" was a "despicable low".
Acton and her brother were taken from their mother's custody after her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and charged in 1978.
That was the last time she spoke to her mother, Acton said in an interview with The Vindicator, an Ohio news outlet. The Arthurs left Ohio and Cledith Arthur was never prosecuted on the rape charge. He died in 2004.
Amy Acton is the former head of the Ohio Department of Health
When the ad featuring Donna Arthur was first posted to social media on Monday evening, it did not say who had paid for or authorised the video. Ramaswamy confirmed on Tuesday that it came from his campaign, and later promised to spend $4m (£2.9m) to keep airing it.
The decision has triggered backlash from both parties.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who challenged Ramaswamy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said "he's a bad guy. It's a shame he continues to get away with it".
When BBC News asked Vance whether he thought the ad was appropriate, he replied: "It's not really my concern."
"What is my concern is who's going to govern the next generation of American government."
He also said he was "a little bit disgusted" by members of his own party who "are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America".
Vance, a former Ohio senator, later defended the ad at a Ramaswamy rally, saying: "Now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because guess what? Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is, and calls Amy Acton a liar."
Vivek Ramaswamy is an ally of President Donald Trump
Asked about Ramaswamy's ad on Wednesday, Trump said: "I know nothing about it. I heard the mother went very rogue on the daughter."
He added: "It's a very unusual situation to have a mother hate a daughter that much. But I dont think that has anything to do with Vivek."
Acton's team released its own campaign ad on Tuesday, a video featuring her brother, Philip Stearns, describing childhood abuse and saying "Amy always got the worst of it".
"Shame on Vivek," he says in the 30-second clip. "It's the contempt he has for Amy. It's the contempt he has for Ohio."
Other Republicans, including some running for statewide office, have also criticised the ad.
Ohio Senator John Husted, who is up for re-election, told the Associated Press: "I would not have run that ad."
Ohio Secretary of Frank LaRose, who is running to be state auditor, was another Republican to speak out against the ad.
"I will say that, you know, candidates will answer for their own ads, that, you know, I probably wouldn't run an ad like that, but every candidate gets to make their own decision," he told WSYX-TV
Political attack ads are not new in US politics, but David Lublin, a professor at American University's School of Public Affairs, told the BBC that "they have become more intense, and the boundaries have stretched in terms of what one attacks about".
Lublin said it was not new for relatives to be used against a political opponent, citing family members who testified against Robert F Kennedy Jr before he was confirmed as health secretary.
"But this is of a different order," he said. "They're estranged not over policy but over a rape allegation."
Lublin believes President Donald Trump's rhetoric and campaigns have helped fuel the coarsening of American political discourse - pointing to the time Trump mocked a reporter in Ohio who had a disability.
"We live in an age where certainly many candidates can appear mean and even inappropriate at times," Lublin said, adding: "The key purpose of attack ads isn't necessarily to convert the followers of your opponent, but more to depress their turnout."
He expects the Ramaswamy attack ad to backfire, saying it could show that his campaign is desperate to shift momentum in his favour in the increasingly competitive race for Ohio governor - even though a Democrat has not been elected governor there in more than two decades.
Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan website that rates and tracks US elections, has shifted the Ohio governor's race from "leans Republican" to "toss up", meaning neither candidate has a clear advantage.