Cook Shifts Ohio Governor’s Race to Lean Democrat After Ramaswamy Ad Backlash

The Cook Political Report on Friday moved Ohio’s governor’s race from Toss Up to Lean Democrat, citing fallout from a Vivek Ramaswamy campaign ad featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s estranged mother.

“The trajectory of Vivek Ramaswamy’s odds in the Ohio governor’s race has been clear to us for the last few weeks,” Cook’s Jessica Taylor wrote in the analysis. The ad, she added, “confirmed that the race is slipping away from him — and perhaps creating some collateral damage for fellow Republicans on the way.”

The move came a day after Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball shifted the race from Toss-Up to Leans D, pointing to the ad as a drag on Ramaswamy, Mediaite reported. Cook also moved 19 House races toward Democrats on Friday.

The spot features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues, the Associated Press reported. The campaign plans to spend $4 million airing it online and on television.

Acton, Ohio’s health director during the COVID-19 pandemic, has spoken openly for years about childhood homelessness and abuse. Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, Acton’s stepfather, was indicted on a rape charge involving Acton from abuse that allegedly occurred from December 1976 to April 1978.

Cledith Arthur failed to appear in court and became a fugitive, and Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death in 2004.

Republicans Split Over the Ad

Gov. Mike DeWine, who endorsed Ramaswamy as his successor, urged the campaign to pull the spot. “It’s wrong to run this ad,” DeWine told reporters at the Ohio Statehouse on Thursday.

President Donald Trump took the opposite view, posting that the ad was “hitting pay dirt” and telling reporters at the White House, “She’s fair game.” Vice President JD Vance criticized Republicans “whining” about it. At a rally in Iowa, Trump said he told Ramaswamy to keep the ad running. “I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody,” the president told the crowd.

Other Republicans kept their distance. Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, who faces former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose both said they would not have run the ad, the AP reported.

Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP Senate nominee in Iowa, told ABC News the ad is “absolutely terrible” and said, “I think they should take the ad down.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign has stood by it. Spokesperson Connie Luck said DeWine “is correct that the first and only candidate to attack the mother of her opponent in this race was Amy Acton.”

That was a reference to Acton’s criticism of Geetha Ramaswamy’s role at a pharmaceutical company run by her son, claims the Ramaswamy campaign called “slanderous.”

DeWine said both lines of attack were wrong because “family members have always historically been off limits,” though he noted only one became a multimillion-dollar ad campaign.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou appeared to warn critics within the party. “Yes — we are keeping score,” he wrote, followed by a winking emoji.

Taylor wrote that Cook had not “talked to a GOP source who thought this was a good idea,” adding, “This is not the kind of TV ad you run if you’re winning — or even if you’re confident you can.”

Election Day is Nov. 3.

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