Before Vivek Ramaswamy’s now-infamous attack ad on his Democratic opponent leaked last week, multiple Republicans on and close to his campaign warned the Trump-endorsed Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee that running this ad was a terrible idea – explaining it would very likely backfire on him, make Democrat Amy Acton seem more sympathetic to crucial median voters, and make him look cruel and desperate, people familiar with the matter tell Zeteo.
Ramaswamy, of course, did it anyway.
“It’s siding with the rapist protector mom,” a Donald Trump adviser says about the ad. “This was never a good idea,” adds the adviser, who says they knew about the ad before it was first published online by the “Rooster” Ohio blogger.
The disturbing ad stars Acton’s long-estranged mother Donna Arthur, who calls the Democratic candidate a liar who deceived people about her past and childhood; according to contemporaneous accounts and court documents, the mother’s husband raped Acton when she was a child, and the mom defended him, fled the state with him before a trial could happen, and stayed with him until he died decades later.
This information was publicly available before the ad was made, before the Ramaswamy campaign announced it would put millions of dollars into promoting the ad, and before President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly embraced Team Vivek’s new attack ad.
Zeteo can now reveal more on how the ad came together, and who else was involved. Somehow, the depraved, sleazy story of how this happened – a new low in a race that the New York Times has declared likely the “ugliest” in the nation – is even worse than you already think it is. This includes details about how visibly unwell Acton’s elderly birth mother seemed when Team Vivek tracked her down, and how “far gone” the alleged character witness acted when the cameras were off, in the words of one top Ohio Republican.
We can also report that the firm that created the ad is the Strategy Group – an Ohio-based firm that’s come under fire for handling part of a sketchy $220 million Department of Homeland Security ad deal.