Heckler erupts at Vivek Ramaswamy over controversial ad that features Democratic opponent’s ‘abusive’ mom

Vivek Ramaswamy was confronted about a controversial ad featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s mother, as the former DOGE co-chair doubled down on the spot. 

Acton, the Democrat running against Ramaswamy for governor of Ohio, issued a furious response to a commercial that features her biological mother Donna Arthur calling Acton a ‘liar.’

She responded by releasing a statement by her brother Phillip Stearns, alleging that she was removed from Arthur’s custody at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect and sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather.

Ramaswamy is standing by the ad and faced an angry heckler at a town hall Tuesday night in Westerville in video posted by an Acton staffer.

Some of the man’s words are not audible on video clips but he can be heard yelling: ‘Why did you run the ad with Amy Acton’s mother!’

He can also be heard making references to rape and yelling that ‘she was 12 year old.’ Acton’s stepfather was accused of sexually abusing her when she was 12.  

Ramaswamy remained relatively calm and responded as police moved over to the disruptor to remove him. 

‘Sir! Excuse me. Excuse me. You’re gonna leave this room if you’re gonna do that. Sir. Sir. If you want to be patient and you want to ask a question at the end, you’ll be free to do that.’ 

The protester was soon taken out of the town hall. 

Ramaswamy’s team confirmed late Tuesday that it produced the controversial advertisement and the campaign said it will spend $4million to broadcast it despite facing bipartisan rebuke for dredging up Acton’s painful childhood. 

Connie Luck, a spokesperson for Ramaswamy’s campaign, said Acton’s mother was not paid for the one-minute spot. 

She said the ad will air both online and on TV in the closing days of the campaign.

All day Tuesday, Acton condemned Ramaswamy for the ad, already suspecting her opponent was behind the attack.

‘I won´t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I´m complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse,’ she told Spectrum News, a cable news outlet in Ohio.

She said Ramaswamy was accused of similar personal attacks during his run for the GOP presidential nomination: ‘This is a lifelong pattern with my opponent.’

Ramaswamy´s campaign initially issued a statement that did not address if he was responsible for the ad or knew who produced it. 

In the statement, Luck said Acton ‘has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of.’

The woman who identifies herself as Donna Arthur, Democratic candidate Amy Acton’s mother, says in the ad: ‘She lies about her past… she’s lied her entire life.’ 

The elderly woman says at the start of the campaign ad: ‘My name is Donna Arthur, and I’m Amy Acton’s mother.’

‘My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself,’ she continues.

She then delivers a brutal message to Ohio voters: ‘Don’t let her become your governor.’

Arthur then claims that she loves her daughter but accuses Acton of being a ‘liar’ about her upbringing, and her opponent, Ramaswamy.

‘She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true,’ Arthur claims,’ before adding, ‘She’s lied her entire life.’

In a statement released by Acton’s campaign, her brother, Philip Stearns, said the two were removed from their mother Donna Arthur’s custody as children after their stepfather, Arthur’s husband, was indicted for raping Acton as a child. 

Acton has not seen Arthur, whose last known address was in Pennsylvania, since they were in a courtroom together in 1978.

Later Tuesday, the Acton campaign released a response ad featuring Stearns, who recalls his older sister taking ‘the worst’ of the abuse they faced as children in order to protect him and disparages Ramaswamy and his allies for exploiting the situation.

According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of his stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton’s biological father reported his alleged conduct to authorities.

The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978.

Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury that September, but failed to show at a court hearing and remained a fugitive until at least 1981. He has since died.

High-profile Republicans who back Ramaswamy – including Donald Trump Jr. and influencer Laura Loomer – elevated the video in online posts.

But other Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the ad. Meghan McCain called it ‘dastardly’ and Dan Hauser, a strategist for Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his retweet of the ad once he realized ‘the very serious accusations that caused their issues.’

The Democrat running for Senate in Ohio, Sherrod Brown, described the spot as ‘disgusting’ and said everyone – including his opponent, Sen. Jon Husted – should be willing to condemn it. 

Husted’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Acton’s mother does not mention Ramaswamy’s name in the ad, but she suggests that Acton has misrepresented her opponent and the time her family was homeless and living in a tent when she was a child – an experience Stearns corroborates.

Recent polls show Ramaswamy trailing Acton by up to seven points ahead of the November 3 election. 

A poll released by Marist University on Tuesday showed Acton leading Ramaswamy with 50 percent of likely voters supporting her, compared to 43 percent who supported him.

Fifty-three percent of independents supported Acton, compared to 34 percent who backed Ramaswamy. 

One glimmer of hope for the Republican in the latest Marist Poll was that 49 percent, nearly half of Ohio likely voters, think Ramaswamy will win the election, not Acton, who scored 45 percent on that question.