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By Sam Stevenson
Associate News Editor
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An attack ad released by Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy may have benefited his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, according to a new poll that found several voters switched their support after encountering it.
The Suffolk University-USA TODAY Ohio survey found that 72 percent of respondents had seen or heard about the ad within days of its October 22 release.
The ad, which featured Acton’s estranged mother criticizing her daughter’s account of her childhood and political record, persuaded just one respondent to shift their support from Acton to Ramaswamy. Seven respondents said it prompted them to move from Ramaswamy to Acton.
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Acton has reportedly not spoken to her mother since 1978.
Among those reconsidering their choice was Brenda Malcolm, an independent voter from Columbus’ Northland neighborhood who said she remained undecided but was now leaning toward Acton.
“It just totally ticked me off,” Malcolm said. “To go contact a mother that hasn’t seen her daughter in 50 years and get this statement from her. The mother doesn’t know anything about Amy.”
The poll surveyed 500 likely Ohio voters from October 21 to 26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Acton led Ramaswamy by 48 percent to 44 percent, with Libertarian candidate Don Kissick receiving 3.6 percent. The four-point difference means the contest remains statistically too close to call.
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Ramaswamy committed more than $4 million to airing the commercial through Election Day despite calls from Republican Governor Mike DeWine and former Governor John Kasich to withdraw it.
“You only do an ad like that if you’re trailing by a large margin,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, told The Columbus Dispatch, describing it as a “Hail Mary strategy.”
“You have to take a gamble,” he said, “and sometimes the gamble pays off, and you score, and sometimes the pass gets intercepted or blocked.”
Newsweek emailed the Acton and Ramaswamy campaigns for comment on Wednesday morning.
This is a developing story. More to follow.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
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