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By Steve Mollman
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Republican Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson sharply criticized Vice President JD Vance over his response to GOP criticism of Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial campaign ad featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, his Democratic rival in the Ohio governor’s race.
Hinson, who is backed by President Donald Trump in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races, told ABC News’ This Week Sunday that the ad should be taken down.
Asked by Jonathan Karl about Vance saying he was “disgusted” by Republicans condemning the ad, Hinson responded: “Yeah, no, it’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely the wrong tone.”
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“Iowans want, and probably Ohioans want, someone who’s going to be an empathetic leader,” Hinson said. “And I think it sends absolutely the wrong message.”
The remarks added to an intraparty dispute in the closing stretch of the midterm campaign, with Trump and Vance defending Ramaswamy while a growing list of Republicans have condemned the ad.
Newsweek reached out to the White House, Vice President Vance’s office and the Ramaswamy campaign for comment Sunday.
Ashley Hinson Says Ramaswamy Ad Should Come Down
The Ramaswamy campaign ad features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her daughter of lying about her past and urging Ohio voters not to elect her.
Acton has described a traumatic and unstable childhood. According to police and court records obtained by the Associated Press, Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and charged with raping Acton when she was 12. He pleaded not guilty, and the case did not go to trial after he left the area while free on bond.
Asked what she thought of Ramaswamy’s ad, Hinson said she viewed the controversy through the lens of being a parent.
“It’s terrible,” she told ABC News. “I think about it as a mom, and you think about your kids surviving childhood sexual abuse and having to relive that trauma on TV again.”
“I think it’s absolutely terrible, and I think they should take the ad down,” she added.
Hinson said her political differences with Acton did not change her view.
“I would bet that Amy Acton and I probably don’t agree on anything either,” she said. “But like the last thing I would want as someone who’s running against is to force them to relive their childhood trauma.”
“So, I think, again, I think it’s wrong, and it should come down.”
What JD Vance Said About Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ad
Vance has defended Ramaswamy amid the backlash.
Vance praised Ramaswamy on Wednesday for having “the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar.”
Vance later told reporters that whether the ad itself was appropriate was “not really my concern.”
“What is my concern is who’s going to govern the next generation of American government?” he said.
Vance also criticized members of his own party who criticized the ad.
“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 said.
It was that position Karl raised with Hinson before she called it “ridiculous” and “absolutely the wrong tone.”
Chris Christie Warns About Vance and Ramaswamy
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, one of Trump’s most persistent Republican critics, also weighed in when the controversy came up later in the show’s roundtable.
“This goes to the rotten moral core that Donald Trump has created for my party,” Christie said.
He continued: “And you then take the two, probably two of the most prominent Trump wannabes in our party, J.D. Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy, and what they’re showing America is, we want to be just as morally bankrupt as Trump, but we don’t have any of the charm or charisma that people might like.”
Christie argued that the consequences of the controversy could extend beyond November’s Ohio governor’s race.
“This is the future of our party if we don’t get our act together,” Christie said.
Christie said the controversy offered “a cautionary tale for the future of our party.”
“If Ramaswamy wins in Ohio, we’re going to see the exact same stuff in 2028,” Christie said. “If he loses, I think it’s going to be a real wake-up call for this type of conduct in our party.”
Former Republican Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina also criticized Ramaswamy during the roundtable, saying: “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
McHenry said the episode showed a “complete lack of judgment,” adding: “And what you need in a governor is judgment.”
Trump Defends Ramaswamy as Republicans Split Over Ad
Trump, who traveled to Iowa to campaign for Hinson this week, has taken the opposite side of the dispute from the candidate he is trying to send to the Senate.
At the Iowa rally, Trump said Ramaswamy had asked him what to do amid criticism of the ad and recalled advising him to keep it up.
“So I told him, leave it up and look upstairs and say, thank you, God, very much. I appreciate it,” Trump said. “But that’s a hot story today. They want him to take down an ad. I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody.”
Trump also praised the spot on Truth Social as a “very powerful Ad.”
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Speaking to reporters Thursday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, urged Ramaswamy to remove the ad, saying: “It’s wrong to run this ad. I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. It’s just wrong.”
Republican Ohio Senator Jon Husted has said he “would not have run” the ad, while former Ohio Representative Jim Renacci warned that Republicans who failed to distance themselves from it risked “taking on water.”
Ramaswamy has stood by the ad, arguing that the controversy is distracting from what he says is Acton’s record of dishonesty.
“Our ad had nothing, nothing to do with childhood abuse, sexual abuse,” Ramaswamy said Friday at a campaign stop in Cleveland. “We condemn that as forcibly as anyone. Our ad was about a consistent track record of Amy Acton telling lies, including during this campaign.”
In a statement shared with Newsweek on Tuesday, Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Connie Luck said the campaign did not know what happened between Acton and her mother but accused the Democrat of being a “serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor.”
Luck said Acton had “repeatedly resorted to lying about Vivek and his family” as well as “lying about her own record,” and argued that people who know Acton, including “her own mother,” were warning Ohio voters against supporting her.
Amy Acton Responds at Barack Obama Rally
Acton addressed the controversy Saturday while campaigning in Cleveland at a rally headlined by former President Barack Obama.
“My opponent has chosen to exploit intentionally my childhood...just to save his struggling campaign,” Acton said. “But it’s not going to work.”
Acton portrayed her experiences as a story of resilience.
“I know that I am not the only one in this room who saw a thing or two in their childhood,” she said. “But our stories, Ohio stories, it’s one of resilience, of grit, of grace and, yes, of hope.”
She later directly attacked Ramaswamy, telling him: “You are not just out of touch, you are out for yourself,” before adding: “You are a danger to my state.”
Acton and Ramaswamy are competing to succeed term-limited Republican Governor Mike DeWine in the November 3 election.
Newsweek reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
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