Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is struggling to book venues in his home state just days before the midterms, amid growing backlash to his unreasonably cruel attack ad against Democratic opponent Amy Acton.
Two Ohio restaurants—Elliot’s Wood Fired Kitchen and The Old Dog Ale House & Brewery—have cancelled events with the Ohio Republican Party featuring Ramaswamy after he released and then doubled down on his advert featuring Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur. An event the party was supposed to host on Tuesday now lists “to be announced” as the location.
The ad features Arthur accusing her daughter of lying about how she was raised. But she lost custody of Acton after her husband, Cledith “Bud” Arthur, was arrested for raping her when she was just 12 years old. Bud skipped bail and left town with Acton’s mother, who stayed married to him until his death. Now, she is being platformed by Ramaswamy, calling her daughter who survived years of sexual abuse a liar on camera.
That cruelty is negatively impacting Ramaswamy’s campaign. An anonymous Ohio Republican even told Zeteo that they were “getting calls that people don’t want him there.” Other venues that hosted Ramaswamy over the weekend have been flooded by one-star reviews on Google.
Aside from the restaurants, Ramaswamy has been rebuked by every living governor of Ohio, Democrat and Republican, for the ad—which has continued to run. Former Republican Governor Mike DeWine said that it was “wrong” to run the ad last week, and urged the Ramaswamy campaign to take it down.
Even still, Ramaswamy, President Trump, and Vice President JD Vance have continued to defend the decision to run the ad, while Acton’s brother Philip Stearns lambasted the campaign last week.
“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” Stearns said. “After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. 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.”