Ramaswamy admits responsibility for sleazy ad with Amy Acton’s mother
and will spend millions to promote it
Dr Amy Acton’s campaign released a statement from her brother, Philip Stearns, who 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 video 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 him 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 Casey Putsch, a car designer and YouTube provocateur who competed against Ramaswamy for the Republican nomination for governor, said on social media that he would be voting for Acton in the wake of the ad’s release. He called the video “pretty damn low.”
Other Republicans also joined Democrats in condemning the ad.
Meghan McCain called it “dastardly”
and Dan Hauser, a strategist for Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his post sharing the video once he realized “the very serious accusations that caused their issues.”
The Democrat running for U.S. 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 respond to a request for comment.
Vice President JD Vance of course said during a campaign visit to Ohio on Wednesday that he is “disgusted” by the Republican pushback against the ad.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-10-21/ramaswamy-takes-responsibility-for-ad-with-amy-actons-mother-will-spend-millions-to-promote-it
