‘DISASTROUS’

Secret Warning to MAGA Candidate Before His Vile Ad Revealed

Members of Ramaswamy’s campaign are said to be quietly outraged and on the verge of resigning.

MAGA candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was warned by his own campaign that his twisted election ad attacking his opponent in Ohio’s gubernatorial race would blow up in his face, a report has claimed.

People familiar with the matter told Zeteo that Trump-endorsed Ramaswamy pushed ahead with the ad targeting Democrat Amy Acton, whom he is losing to in the polls, despite pushback from his team.

In the 60-second ad, Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accuses her daughter of being a “liar” and says she “needs help.”

The pair have been estranged since 1978, when Acton was just 12 and accused her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, of raping her. Donna stood by her husband. The case never reached a trial; Arthur fled the state and remained a fugitive until his death in 2004.

Zeteo also obtained court records showing that Acton’s stepfather was indicted for molesting his biological daughter a year before Arthur married him.

Multiple Republicans on and close to his campaign warned Ramaswamy that the ad would make Acton “seem more sympathetic to crucial median voters, and make him look cruel and desperate,” Zeteo reported.

They warned the ad, created by Ohio-based firm Strategy Group, was a terrible idea and would backfire, according to Zeteo.

“It’s siding with the rapist protector mom,” an adviser to President Donald Trump said. “This was never a good idea.”

Several influential figures in the Ohio Republican Party, the national GOP and Trumpworld privately told Zeteo that the ad was a “disastrous, self-inflicted wound.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign was still testing the ad’s effectiveness when local journalist D.J. Byrnes, also known as the Rooster, leaked it last week.

The controversial attack ad has divided Republicans, though Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended it.

Members of Ramaswamy’s own campaign are reported to be quietly outraged and on the verge of resigning, but they don’t want to jeopardize other Republican candidates’ chances ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

The Ohio GOP’s lieutenant governor candidate, Robert McColley, “expressed reservations” about the ad, but “is now forced to publicly defend it on the campaign trail,” two people with knowledge of the matter told the publication.

Several of Ramaswamy’s campaign members also expressed concerns about the mental state of Acton’s estranged mother, whom Strategy Group tracked down to create the spot.

Arthur, who was last reported to be living in her car, appeared “far gone” and “in bad shape” around the time the ad was filmed, one top Ohio Republican told Zeteo. According to the outlet, she also struggled to give a consistent account of her daughter’s past.

Sources told Zeteo that some team members wanted to vet the mother’s account more closely, but Ramaswamy himself wanted to proceed.

The Daily Beast has contacted a representative for Ramaswamy’s campaign for comment.

The Ohio gubernatorial candidate doubled down on the ad at a campaign stop on Friday.

“What we need is a governor at the top just like President Trump is for our country—a governor for this state who stands strong, who says we will not play on your terms,” Ramaswamy said. “We will stand for what we know is right and true, and we will not apologize for it.”

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Acton called the twisted campaign ad “despicable.”

“I’ve never attacked his family. I would never do that,” Acton said of her opponent. “You can see that there are so many people who have experienced trauma and abuse in their lives.”

Meanwhile, Trump advised Ramaswamy that “you gotta ride with it.”

“Leave it up, and look upstairs and say, ‘Thank you God, very much,’” Trump said at a rally in Iowa on Thursday,

Vance downplayed bipartisan backlash to the ad.

‘I TAUGHT YOU BETTER’

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“When I see Republicans, people in my party, reacting so strongly, especially elected officials, have the opinion you want to have on that ad,” Vance told reporters during a press briefing in Ohio on Wednesday.

“If you think it was too tough, say it was too tough. If you think it wasn’t tough enough, say that. But I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.”

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Isabel van BrugenFreelance Writer

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