Ramaswamy’s attack ad asks a question all American voters must answer

I served in the 101st Airborne, the 82nd Airborne, and Army Special Forces. I’m a disabled veteran and an Ohio voter. I expect candidates to answer hard questions about their records. I also care about what they’re willing to do to win.Most of us now know that his campaign produced an ad featuring Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of his opponent for Ohio governor, Amy Acton. Arthur calls her daughter a liar, disputes Acton’s account of her childhood, and tells Ohioans not to vote for her. Acton has said her stepfather sexually abused her as a child. She was 12 when he was charged with rape in 1978. He was later indicted but left Ohio without ever facing trial. Acton and her brother were removed from the home, while their mother remained married to him. Contemporaneous news coverage and court records support key parts of Acton’s account. The ad, however, presents her mother’s denial without the historical context that voters need to assess it.What question about governing Ohio required Ramaswamy to put Acton’s mother in front of a camera?Acton’s work as Ohio’s health director deserves scrutiny. So do her pandemic decisions, policy proposals, and qualifications for governor. Voters can question her answers and decide she hasn’t earned their support.But why should she have to defend her account of childhood abuse against a campaign that recruited her estranged mother?I believe in free speech. I wouldn’t want a government official deciding which political ads Americans can see. That doesn’t oblige me to support a candidate who uses that freedom this way.In the military, we were responsible for how we accomplished the mission. The same principle should apply to a candidate seeking public office: Winning is the objective, but it doesn’t settle whether the methods used to win are acceptable. I expect anyone asking for my vote to take responsibility for how they win it.If elected, Ramaswamy will oversee agencies that care for children and respond to families asking for help. Some of those families will report abuse and fear they won’t be believed. I want to know how he’ll ensure those concerns are taken seriously.Ramaswamy’s campaign produced the ad, and he has defended it. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) has called for the ad to be taken down. I’d ask those defending it: If it helped your candidate win, would that make it right?I’d ask the same of a Democrat. Agreeing with a candidate on taxes, schools, or party priorities doesn’t mean you have to accept everything he does to win. Voters everywhere should ask themselves whether they’d excuse this ad if the other party had made it.Ramaswamy can take the ad down and acknowledge that using Acton’s childhood against her was wrong. Party leaders and donors can tell him they expect him to do so.SERBIA VOTES FOR CHANGE. WHAT COMES NEXT?I didn’t serve because I thought Americans would always use their freedoms responsibly. Those freedoms include my right to say when a candidate has gone too far.Before I vote to put Ramaswamy in charge of Ohio, I would like an answer. All Americans should ask what they’re willing to accept from a candidate who wants their vote.Scott W. Patton is an Army combat veteran and Gold Star family member whose work has appeared in USA Today, Columbus Dispatch, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. His brother, Sgt. Maj. Jerry D. Patton, died while serving in 2008.