On this day last year, construction crews tore down the East Wing of the White House to make room for Donald Trumpās cherished ballroom. Clearly illegal, the project nonetheless continues.
Welcome to Wednesday. Itās Swin again. We are less than two weeks from Election Day. If the polls are right, Donald Trump and his neo-Confederate gargoyles and trillionaire-aligned degenerates are in for an electoral kicking. In this final sprint, Republicans in the great state of Ohio, where Iām raising my children right now, have decided to make what the New York Times dubs perhaps āthe ugliestā 2026 race even meaner, nastier, more wicked and perverse.
In todayās āFirst Draft,ā weāll get into how that happened, why Republicans think their latest attack on Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton could ābackfireā immensely, and why you really need to be paying attention, even if you donāt live in Ohio. Meanwhile, billionaire anti-woke warrior Bill Ackman wants you to watch a grossly Islamophobic video that uses foul tropes straight out of the antisemitic hate he decries. Plus, Israeli forces detain NY Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander in the occupied West Bank. Such fun. Time to read in.
āVivekās Strugglingā
If youāre one of the nearly 12 million residents of the red (formerly swing) state of Ohio who watch TV or streaming services, and if you knew next to nothing about Democratic or Republican politics in the state, thereās a good chance that the only thing youāll know ā or think you know ā about Amy Acton is that sheās a mentally unwell, pill-popping wino who falls down a lot, and that sheās a liberal running to succeed Republican Governor Mike DeWine.
If you live in the Buckeye State, youāve been bombarded with political ads making such claims for, seemingly, eternity. Such is the nature of the Ohio governorās contest between Acton and Trump-endorsed Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a race so nasty, so mean-spirited, so deeply personal, so tar-slinging that last month the national paper of record caught on. Donald Trump and the GOP have fucked up so astoundingly since early 2025 that Ohio ā supposedly solidly red, its days of voting twice for Barack Obama long gone ā appears on the cusp of sending Democrat Sherrod Brown back to the U.S. Senate. Ohio also looks quite likely to make Acton, locked in a tight race with Ramaswamy, its governor, which would be yet another stunning sign of how forcefully the country is turning against Trumpās pathetic, fascist presidency.
As āFirst Draftā has reported, it isnāt hard to find top Republican figures, national or Ohio-based, who are palpably anxious that Ramaswamy, a 2024 GOP primary contender who once pitched himself as more MAGA than Trump, could actually blow a race once thought un-blowable. And yet, in the homestretch, Team Vivek has decided to get even more morally unhinged in their attacks on Acton.
Early this week, Ohio politics blogger DJ Byrnes (a.k.a. āThe Roosterā of ānaked Shrekā fame) posted a video of an ad featuring Actonās estranged mother, Donna Arthur, who says Acton has ālied her entire lifeā and doesnāt deserve to be governor. The video didnāt say who paid for it. By Tuesday, Ohio Republicans and others familiar with the matter were telling me it was a leaked Ramaswamy ad draft that was in the middle of being focus-group-tested, and wasnāt meant for publication at that time. (Multiple sources pointed out that when paused, they could see the video had a conspicuous āOnline Surveyā title.) Byrnes confirmed as much.
The leak explained why the Ramaswamy campaign was so slow to endorse or even publicly acknowledge the adās existence.