CLEVELAND — It could be the biggest backfire of the 2026 Midterm elections. It might be of epic proportion for all time.
Dr. Amy Acton took it in stride on Saturday, however, calling out her Republican opponent for governor of Ohio in front of 10,000 supporters at Public Hall. The rally for Acton and former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown featured a key appearance by former President Barack Obama.
“Now my opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood,” Acton told the super-enthusiastic crowd. She was referring to Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision to spend millions in campaign dollars to produce and air a controversial attack ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother calling her daughter a liar.
Acton and her brother were both removed from her mother’s custody when she was 12 years old, after her mother’s husband was indicted on rape charges for allegedly molesting Acton. She and her brother never reconnected with the woman after that. The Ramaswamy campaign continued ad purchases for the attack ad even after widespread criticism and blowback from across the political spectrum called out the vile nature of the spot.
President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance dismissed the pushback, with Vance sharply criticizing Republicans who complained and urging the campaign to double down on the message.
However, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who has endorsed Ramaswamy and is no stranger to hardball politics, said “it was just wrong to continue running” the attack ad.
“It’s deeply, deeply, deeply troubling,” DeWine told reporters mid-week after the ad debuted. “It needs to come down.”
Other Republicans—and even Sen. Jon Husted, Brown’s opponent in the U.S. Senate race—agreed it should come down. No local Republicans responded, however, when asked to comment about the political ad.
Acton told supporters on Saturday that Ohio voters are united against Ramaswamy and his gutter campaign. She said they remember an Ohio where politics didn’t look like this.
“When I grew up, we didn’t know what party you were in. We knew what union you were in. We knew what branch of the military you served in. We knew where you worked. We knew what civic groups you were in,” Acton said. “The biggest thing we knew is we had each other’s backs.”
She pivoted back to Ramaswamy, evoking a loud chorus of boos inside the packed 10,000-seat hall.
“As you probably heard by now, my brother and I suffered a lot of childhood abuse and neglect. We moved countless times as kids, and we did live in a tent in the middle of winter one year. And now my opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood.
“It’s his struggling campaign,” she said. “But it’s not going to work.”
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