An attack advertisement from Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy targeting Democratic opponent Amy Acton has drawn criticism, including from within his own party, less than two weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. The ad, which began circulating online on Monday, features Acton's estranged mother, Donna Arthur, who calls her daughter a liar, disputes her account of childhood homelessness and living in a tent, and suggests she has a mental illness. Ramaswamy's campaign confirmed on Tuesday that it was behind the ad and announced plans to spend $4 million promoting it. Ramaswamy has refused to withdraw it despite calls from senior Republicans to do so.

The ad does not mention that Acton and her mother have been estranged since 1978, when Acton, then 12, was removed from her mother's custody after her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was charged with raping her. According to court records obtained by Signal Ohio, he pleaded not guilty but failed to appear in court and was never tried. Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death. Court records and contemporaneous news reports support key elements of Acton's account, and FactCheck.org found records linking the stepfather to the campground where Acton said the family lived in a tent, contradicting Arthur's claim that the family never lived there.

Public records and newspaper clippings reviewed by NBC News and court records obtained by NewsNation also show a history of financial and legal trouble for Donna Arthur. A Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, indictment charged her with theft by deception and bad checks related to $2,555 in purchases at a September 1995 auction; she pleaded guilty in 1996 and received a maximum sentence of 24 months in confinement. She pleaded guilty to another series of similar charges in 2005. In 2021, she faced animal neglect charges alleging she kept cats and kittens in a locked vehicle with an internal temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit; at least one resulting conviction was later vacated on appeal for denial of counsel. NewsNation said it had reached out to Arthur for comment.

Acton's campaign responded Tuesday with a statement recounting her childhood and a counter-ad featuring her brother, Phil Stearns, who said, "I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it. She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me." David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, told Al Jazeera that campaigns have used relatives against candidates before, but not in such a deeply personal way, calling the "degree of just personal destruction" unprecedented.

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended Ramaswamy, and Trump described the ad on Thursday as "very powerful" and said he had encouraged Ramaswamy to continue. The dispute has raised broader questions about the limits of personal attacks in campaigns and how voters will respond in the closing days of the Ohio governor's race. With a $4 million ad buy planned, the spot is expected to remain a prominent feature of the contest through Election Day.