By Kenneth Tiven
Personal invective and dirty tricks have always been a background element in American politics, but Vivek Ramaswamy, an Indian-American millionaire has elevated the art form, possibly reversing his slim lead in the race to become governor of Ohio.
After denying it, Ramaswamy has admitted his media team developed and tested the nasty advertisement featuring the estranged mother of Dr Amy Acton, his opponent. She criticizes her daughter as an unstable liar.
He has doubled down planning to keep it on Ohio TV stations up to November 3, election day. Ramaswamy’s mean streak surfaced briefly in the 2020 primary election cycle when he presented himself as a right wing alternative to Donald Trump. He has now become the poster boy for grotesque smears and character assassination in this year’s campaign cycle.
The Democratic candidate for governor, Amy Acton, was abused as a child at the hands of her stepfather until she was 12 years old, including rape. Indicted for his crimes, he and his wife skipped the state, abandoning her and her brother. The Ramaswamy campaign got the elderly mom to go on camera and denigrate her daughter, whom she abandoned decades ago.
Acton responded with an ad featuring her younger brother who validated her accounts and said that she had taken the brunt of the abuse to protect him. Ohio voters in a state with both agriculture and manufacturing sectors suffering Trump policies, has one more issue to ponder.
Campaigns for Senate seats to keep a majority are going badly for several Republicans, with Texas, South Carolina, Maine, Michigan, Alaska all in play. Trump’s declining personal popularity and often erratic public behaviour is not helping.
The post Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign ad against Ohio Governor race rival backfires appeared first on India Legal.