The corporate cash behind Vivek Ramaswamy’s "despicable" TV ad

At 12 years old, Amy Acton was the victim of sexual abuse. After her stepfather was indicted on charges of raping Acton, her estranged mother, Donna Arthur, took her stepfather’s side and left the state with him as he fled justice.

Now, Acton is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio and her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, is turning her history of abuse into a political attack ad. In the ad, Arthur accuses Acton of lying about her past. Arthur also came out against Acton in 2020, when Acton was leading Ohio’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic as director of the state’s Department of Health, saying that she did not grow up in poverty and she was not raped by her stepfather. Court and police records cast doubt on Arthur’s claims.

The ad has been widely condemned by Democrats and Republicans as “morally wrong” and “revolting.” Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, responded to the ad on Tuesday, saying, “It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point.”

A Popular Information analysis of campaign finance records reveals that the ad was funded, in part, with contributions from the PACs and executives of major American corporations, including Bank of America, Deloitte, DraftKings, Kroger, and Nationwide.

The ad began circulating on social media on Monday night when it was included in a political survey. On Tuesday evening, Ramaswamy told reporters that the ad came from his campaign but had not yet been shown on TV. Despite bipartisan backlash, Ramaswamy’s campaign decided to dig in later on Tuesday night, spending $4 million to air the ad across Ohio.

In the ad, Arthur did not specifically mention the rape charges against her husband, but repeatedly called her daughter a liar. “Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life,” Arthur said.

Arthur’s account, however, is not credible.

Court records indicate that Acton’s stepfather was found living in a tent when Acton was a child, and Acton’s campaign provided documents to CBS indicating that the family lived in a tent for a year.

Arthur has previously claimed that Acton lied about being raped by her stepfather. In a 2020 interview with an anti-abortion group called Operation Rescue, Arthur said, “I haven’t seen my daughter since she was 12 years old and that was when my daughter lied and said my second husband raped her.”

Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and charged with raping Acton in 1978. He pleaded not guilty but was later indicted by a grand jury. Arthur supported her husband after his arrest. She went with him when he fled Ohio for Pennsylvania to avoid prosecution, abandoning her children. Cledith Arthur never returned to Ohio, despite warrants for his arrest. He died in 2004.

In the same 2020 interview, Arthur said that a rape accusation by Cledith Arthur’s daughter from a previous marriage against him was also false. Arthur said, “She had accused him of rape, but that was wrong too.” Court and newspaper records show that Cledith Arthur was charged with incest in 1974 for allegedly raping his eldest daughter, according to HuffPost.

After moving to Pennsylvania with her husband, Arthur was found guilty of theft by deception in 1995 and 1996 and animal neglect in 2021. When Arthur attempted to appeal the animal neglect case, a judge found her “not credible.”

The ad was condemned by a host of prominent Republican officials and political commentators. Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former communications director for President Trump, said it was “the grossest ad I can think of… anyone behind it should be ashamed.” Lydia Mihalik, the director of the Ohio Department of Development for Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R), said, “There are lines we shouldn’t cross, and this is one of them… I don’t have to agree with Amy Acton’s politics to believe that exploiting someone’s childhood trauma is wrong.” Republican strategist Leslie Shedd described the ad as “despicable” and “morally wrong and reprehensible.”

The ad was financed by Ramaswamy’s campaign, which has raised money from numerous major corporations — both through corporate PACs and from top executives.

Popular Information contacted these companies and asked if they believed the ad featuring Acton’s mother was acceptable. DraftKings declined to comment and the other companies did not respond.