A police call, a cut quote and a decades-old document: Ramaswamy's ads against Acton, reviewed

NewsVivek Ramaswamy attack ads on Amy Acton: One’s legit, a 2nd is vicious and a 3rd is falseGov. Mike DeWine has assigned state security details for Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton since they each won their respective parties' nominations for governor on May 5. (Associated Press)AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki; AP Photo/Jay LaPreteBy Today in Ohiocleveland.comWe’re three months out from Election Day in Ohio, and part of the governor’s race is in the mud. Today in Ohio podcast hosts on Tuesday called balls and strikes on multiple attack ads by Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.Ramaswamy repeatedly has refused to answer questions about he would govern, relying instead on vicious television advertising to boost his chances. His campaign and affiliated political action committees have launched a barrage of attack ads targeting Democratic candidate Amy Acton.Podcast hosts said recent ads range from questionable to outright dishonest, based on a story by chief politics writer Jeremy Pelzer. The first ad centers on a 2019 incident in which Bexley police were called to Acton’s home during a dispute with her husband over her working hours as Ohio’s state health director. Both admitted to having drinks. Her husband later said he had too much to drink, that he started the verbal argument, and that Acton tried to de-escalate before going to bed. The police report was obtained by a Republican opposition research firm later paid more than $20,000 by the Ramaswamy campaign. The resulting TV ads described the night as a “boozy pill-popping episode.” Podcast host Chris Quinn said the incident seems like fair game for a political ad. He said a wall mirror was inexplicably shattered in the disturbance and police were called. Those are not normal elements for a basic marital dispute, and the incident happened in the year before Acton rose to fame in the Wine with DeWine daily pandemic briefings. Host Lisa Garvin said Ramaswamy portrayed the incident in the worst light possible.The Medical License AttackThe second ad digs into Acton’s 1994 medical license application, where she answered yes to a question about treatment for emotional or mental illness — disclosing that she had sought help for childhood sexual abuse trauma. The ad also highlights a rating of “insufficient” on one section of her application, based on only four months of a twelve-month internship she left early because she was pregnant.“This seems to feel really sleazy,” Quinn said, pointing out that Acton has a medical license, served as Ohio’s Director of Health under a Republican governor, and her qualifications as a doctor are simply not in question.The Manipulated QuoteThe third ad — and perhaps the most egregious — cuts off a quote from Acton mid-sentence to make it sound like she didn’t understand what a pandemic was. In reality, she was saying she Googled the word because she couldn’t understand why no one was calling the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic yet. The ad drops the second half of her sentence entirely.“This is a lie,” Quinn said. “This is a flat out dishonest ad that should be called out everywhere. Anybody who sees this ad should know they’re basically lying to you because that’s not what she said.”Garvin said Ramaswamy has recently dropped another attack ad that was not reviewed in the Pelzer story. She said it features a quote from Acton that the campaign didn’t attribute to any source, juxtaposed with messaging accusing her of inspiring violence against ICE officers. It marks the first ad where Ramaswamy himself appears on camera.Quinn questioned the strategic logic of the ICE ad because public opinion on ICE has shifted dramatically. Many Americans see ICE agents as thugs who have murdered law-abiding Americans and abused countless others. Quinn suggested Ramaswamy may be badly misreading the Ohio electorate.Stepping back, Quinn and the panel were unified on a broader point. Ramaswamy has offered no policy vision, declined to answer substantive questions, and built his campaign almost entirely around tearing Acton down. As Quinn put it, “Vivek Ramaswamy is a complete pretender trying to buy the office. Amy Acton is a genuine person with public service in her background and policies on all sorts of things.”Listen to the discussion here.Your electric bill is sky-high and Ohio Republicans feel the heat. Are they going too far?Ohio’s governor’s race has a transparency problem, and his name is Vivek Ramaswamy“He’s acting deranged:” How Max Miller is turning his divorce into a Congressional seat–losing disasterListen to full “Today in Ohio” episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.