Vivek Ramaswamy’s Acton Ad Ends

What happened

Updated Oct 29, 8:48pm ET

Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign stopped airing its ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother after its planned run ended. The campaign had aired the attack as Republican Ramaswamy runs for Ohio governor against Democrat Acton. Acton says she has been estranged from Donna Arthur since childhood after abuse, including sexual abuse by her stepfather; Arthur called Acton a liar. Ramaswamy said the ad ran to completion and other ads were rotating. President Trump and Vice President Vance defended the decision, with Trump saying he would have used it too. Critics included Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, and Acton’s campaign demanded an apology. At a Trump rally in Chillicothe, a selfie seeker shouted “Pedophiles!”; Ramaswamy called for his removal.

How the left told it

Left-leaning outlets framed the ad’s end through its damage to Ramaswamy, emphasizing the rally confrontation and signs it backfired. HuffPost led with the selfie ambush as an embarrassing interruption of his campaign persona and tied it to polls suggesting the attack helped Acton. New Republic leaned on unnamed sources cited by Zeteo to portray the ad as exploitative of Acton’s estranged mother.

How the right told it

Only one right-leaning outlet we track covered this: Washington Examiner, under the headline “Ramaswamy pulls controversial ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother”.