--- title: 'We Now Deserve to Lose': Ramaswamy Ad Deepens GOP Panic in Ohio description: J.D. Vance defended Ramaswamy, as GOP strategists privately told TIME the divisive ad had already backfired badly. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/10/21/ramaswamy-s-ad-of-acton-s-estranged-mom-jolts-ohio-races-across-the-ballot/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-10-21T21:03:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-22T20:01:25.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'We Now Deserve to Lose': Ramaswamy Ad Deepens GOP Panic in Ohio og:description: J.D. Vance defended Ramaswamy, as GOP strategists privately told TIME the divisive ad had already backfired badly. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/10/21/ramaswamy-s-ad-of-acton-s-estranged-mom-jolts-ohio-races-across-the-ballot/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bf51d2c18c2d62e/6ad9059b1aa2d63f6ac23a01/GettyImages-2300851744.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: GettyImages-2300851744.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'We Now Deserve to Lose': Ramaswamy Ad Deepens GOP Panic in Ohio twitter:description: J.D. Vance defended Ramaswamy, as GOP strategists privately told TIME the divisive ad had already backfired badly. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bf51d2c18c2d62e/6ad9059b1aa2d63f6ac23a01/GettyImages-2300851744.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'We Now Deserve to Lose': Ramaswamy Ad Deepens GOP Panic in Ohio > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=397b9ed7-72e7-475b-ab42-d6e60893e394&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Midterm Ad Spending Has Topped $10B. Here's Who's Behind the Ads You Keep Seeing [Watch (HLS stream): Midterm Ad Spending Has Topped $10B. Here's Who's Behind the Ads You Keep Seeing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oOrHnTfQ.m3u8) (1:25)  _Published 2026-10-22. Republicans privately say the ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother has already backfired_  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Oct 22, 2026 8:01 PM UTCPublished: Oct 21, 2026 9:03 PM UTC  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Oct 22, 2026 8:01 PM UTCPublished: Oct 21, 2026 9:03 PM UTC Listen 00:001.0x04:05 Narrated by TIME AI. The fierce and bipartisan backlash to gubernatorial candidate [Vivek Ramaswamy's](https://time.com/article/2026/10/19/ramaswamy-struggles-in-ohio-race-once-seen-as-a-sure-thing/) decision to feature his opponent's estranged mother in an ad left Republicans in Ohio and Washington reeling on Wednesday, as both Ramaswamy and Vice President J.D. Vance doubled down on the divisive strategy. Publicly, Republicans were mounting a defense, led by Vance, who is [from Ohio](https://time.com/6998809/jd-vance-vice-president-trump-nominee/) and was campaigning in Cincinnati on Wednesday, treating the ad as a game-changing October surprise. On Thursday, President Trump joined in, saying in a [social media post](https://www.trumpstruth.org/statuses/42615) that Ramaswamy should keep the ad running and "let everyone listen to the mother of a defective, dishonest, and incapable Candidate, explain how the daughter is a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!" But privately, old-guard Republicans were baffled that Ramaswamy would dare to deploy Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s own mother, who has not spoken to her daughter since 1978 when she defended Acton’s stepfather who was indicted for raping Acton as a child. Some predicted the ad was likely to draw more empathy and interest in Acton from voters, and turn them away from Ramaswamy. “We’ve lost the plot,” says one Republican strategist. “We had a real good chance and then we do this two weeks out.” Adds a second: “We now deserve to lose this race.” The addition of this ad so close to Election Day roiled races in Ohio up and down the ballot. “I would not have run that ad,” Republican Sen. Jon Husted, running in a [tight and expensive race for re-election ](https://time.com/article/2026/04/20/when-no-one-was-looking-ohio-became-a-swing-state-again/)against Sherrod Brown in Ohio, [told](https://apnews.com/article/election-2026-ohio-governor-ramaswamy-acton-mother-93ab182c3e0a95d25ddb409ec0628231) The Associated Press on Wednesday. Other players in the state's Republican circles say the ad has all the pieces of a misfire, especially among women. Recent polls have shown Acton leading but not running away with the race. A Marist University poll released this week showed her up seven points. But Ohio is a state where President Donald Trump won three times, never with fewer than eight points to spare. If elected, Acton would be the first Democrat to become Governor since 2007. Ramaswamy’s campaign said it was putting $4 million into making sure the ad gets seen, with a goal of targeting persuadable voters still undecided between the billionaire entrepreneur and Acton, the former state health chief who steered Ohio through the pandemic. But the risk of it backfiring is incredibly high with no time to recover. Ramaswamy’s campaign includes several operatives who previously worked for Vance, who sidestepped questions about the ad’s message on Wednesday as he urged Republicans to not allow such hard-nosed messaging to distract them from the stakes of the election. “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,” he told reporters. “So I would say to Ohio Republicans: do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as Governor of the state of Ohio? I do.” By Wednesday afternoon, it was clear Vance might be in a decided minority. “I don’t have to agree with Amy Acton’s politics to believe that exploiting someone’s childhood trauma is wrong,” wrote Republican Lydia Mihalik, a member of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s Cabinet. On Thursday morning, DeWine himself joined in the pile on, telling reporters at the Statehouse in Columbus that the ad was “deeply, deeply troubling" and urging Ramaswamy's campaign to take it down, [The Associated Press reported.](https://apnews.com/article/election-2026-ohio-governor-acton-mother-ramaswamy-de2aec0076776539cd206f91d39d0236) Mike Murphy, a strategist who was in Sen. John McCain’s inner circle when he ran for President in 2000 and headed Gov. Jeb Bush’s super PAC in 2016, wrote a brutal assessment of the ad on social media, saying it “is looking more and more like political suicide.” And former South Carolina Gov. [Nikki Haley](https://time.com/6552240/nikki-haley-trump-iowa-republican-debate/), who ran against Ramaswamy in the 2020 presidential primaries and was a frequent critic of him, was even more direct. “He’s a bad guy,” she said. “It’s a shame he continues to get away with it.” In an editorial endorsement of Acton published Wednesday, The Columbus _Dispatch_ roundly condemned the video: “It should go without saying that sexual violence against children should not be politicized or taken as lightly as Ramaswamy appears to take it.” For its part, Acton’s campaign began an ad of its own calling out Ramaswamy’s effort to make her childhood a campaign issue after a half century in the past. "I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it,” Acton’s brother, Phil Stearns, says in a new 30-second ad released Wednesday. “She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me from that, and if she hadn't done that, who knows where I would have ended up.” "She was 11- and 12-years-old, and to think that that's somehow a talking point—shame on Vivek,” Stearns continues. “The contempt he has for Amy is the contempt he has for Ohio. He's not fit to lead." ## Transcript [00:00] $10 billion have now been [00:01] spent on political ads for the midterms, [00:04] a record setting number that's projected to [00:05] reach $11.6 billion by Election Day. [00:08] In comparison, the 2024 presidential election cycle [00:11] saw about $11.2 billion in ad spending. [00:13] So where's all the money coming from? [00:15] Here's what to know in one minute. [00:17] Political advertisements [00:19] are an influential campaign tool, [00:21] but it's important to note that higher spending [00:23] doesn't necessarily correlate to [00:25] greater success at the polls. [00:26] That hasn't deterred either party from pouring [00:28] hundreds of millions into some of [00:30] the tightest Senate races, [00:31] like in Texas, where [00:33] 500 million has been funneled into ads so far. [00:35] James Talarico has the chance to become [00:37] the state's first Democratic senator since 1993, [00:40] but Elon Musk is bankrolling the Republicans fight. [00:43] Just last month, he gave $158 million [00:45] to super PACs supporting Talarico opponent Ken Paxton. [00:48] Right behind Texas is Ohio, [00:50] with 460 million spent. [00:51] But Maine shows up with [00:52] the highest ad spending per capita at 200 million. [00:55] Musk is not the only billionaire [00:57] pumping finances into the cycle. [00:58] George Soros stands as [01:00] the wealthiest identified contributor to Democrats, [01:03] with entities he's linked to putting [01:04] $110 million into democracy PAC, [01:07] while a Supreme Court decision from [01:08] 2010 supports unlimited donations to superPACs, [01:11] critics of the rule worry that it gives [01:13] wealthy donors disproportionate influence over elections, [01:16] and a quote unquote, [01:17] dark money loophole potentially allows foreign influence. 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