The backlash continues against Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for running a shameful ad exploiting his opponent’s childhood trauma of being raped by her stepfather. The state’s most prominent Republicans have condemned the ad. A major newspaper that had decided against making an endorsement changed course and endorsed his opponent. Venues where he was scheduled to appear have canceled their events. And thousands of people affiliated with his Jesuit high school have signed a petition expressing “deep moral disappointment” in what he did.
Forecasters are now downgrading his chances of winning.
Such an outraged response should have been predictable. But Ramaswamy lives in a MAGA bubble where cruelty for sport has become an unquestioned political practice. And now it may come to haunt the GOP in a key battleground state.
This is a nightmarish set of disapproval indicators for Ramaswamy.
The vitriol against Ramaswamy has been so pervasive that many people likely know the details already. He launched an ad campaign where Donna Arthur, the mother of Ohio’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, says Acton has a “serious problem: She is a liar, she lies about her past. … She has lied her entire life.” As Ohio journalist Ray Marcano explained for MS NOW:
“Acton is a victim of sexual abuse. Her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and indicted by a grand jury in 1978 for raping Acton, who was 12 at the time. Donna Arthur lost custody of Acton and her brother, but she stayed married to Cledith Arthur, who reportedly fled after the indictment and died in 2004 in Pennsylvania.”
Several Republican politicians, including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, immediately criticized Ramaswamy’s hideous ad. Since then, two Ohio restaurants have canceled Republican events where Ramaswamy was scheduled to appear. And other venues that recently hosted Ramaswamy have reportedly been given one-star reviews featuring photos of him at the establishments.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s editorial board had recently announced a new policy not to endorse in high-level races, but it felt compelled to reverse that position for this senate race. The board said it felt obligated to speak up because the ad was so beyond the pale. “Our politics have been debased for a decade, but this we will not accept,” the endorsement for Acton reads. “A candidate who uses childhood sexual abuse as a weapon against the person who endured it has crossed a line that Ohioans should defend, whatever their party.”
The editorial calls on readers to “Stand with decency on Nov. 3” and “reject the debasement Ramaswamy has brought to this campaign.”
Meanwhile, the petition started by an alumnus of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati says Ramaswamy resorted to “personal cruelty” toward Acton that violates the school’s “foundational standard of being a ‘Man for Others.’”
The fallout from the ad has been so significant that the Cook Political Report has cited the ad in changing its forecast of the Ohio race from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat.” It notes that it “[hasn’t] talked to a GOP source who thought this was a good idea” and speculates that it’s possible that the backlash could even hurt other Republicans running in the state.
As a candidate in an extremely tight race, this is a nightmarish set of disapproval indicators for Ramaswamy.
His ad — and his refusal to pull it when his fellow Republicans said it was out of bounds — speaks to the way MAGA politics has deranged its adherents’ political sensibilities. Addicted to provocation and insult, Ramaswamy either failed to anticipate his ad would be so controversial, or he guessed the controversy would be worth it. But at this point, at least, it appears to have been a poor wager.
This is the exact kind of news cycle that could plausibly deter some swing voters from casting their ballots for Ramaswamy. The aura of scandal surrounding him — and the personal, nonpolitical nature of it — is the kind of thing that could affect voters who tend to be less ideological and look for other ways to assess trust in candidates.
It’s unclear how much hardcore MAGA voters will be swayed, if at all. President Donald Trump has defended Ramaswamy, and to much of his base, that may be all that matters. And it’s still very much a tight race. But Trump’s strength as an endorser has weakened this year alongside his plummeting approval ratings. And it doesn’t bode well that Ramaswamy is specifically weaponizing a sexual crime against a minor — a subject which a considerable chunk of the MAGA base has been frustrated with Trump’s inattention to in his handling of the Epstein files. At the very least, it could theoretically dampen turnout among Trump’s more disillusioned voters.
The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer came up with a poignant phrase during the first Trump administration to help us make sense of what we were seeing: “The cruelty is the point.” Ramaswamy may be learning, though, that even now, there are particular kinds of cruelty that the public will not abide.
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