Kristoffer Ealy is a political scientist, political analyst, and professor in Southern California. He teaches American Government and political behavior, with a focus on political psychology, voting behavior, and political socialization. Subscribe to his Substack, The Thinking Class with Professor Ealy.
Over the last twelve months, Republicans have given this country an embarrassing, deadly, and unpopular war, a president whose approval ratings are scraping the bottom of the political toilet, and a midterm slate featuring some of the most pathetic MAGA candidates ever to file paperwork.
Ken Paxton is among them, which tells you something about the competition. And somehow, with that much concentrated stupidity fighting for our attention, Ohio GOP gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy has found a way to distinguish himself. When your party has turned public embarrassment into an Olympic sport and you are still finding innovative ways to take home the gold, that is a special kind of talent. Vivek has managed to offend people on both the left and the right, which is just a regular Tuesday for him, but this time he might have tanked his own campaign.
In an extraordinary display of political desperation, a one-minute video surfaced Monday night featuring Donna Arthur, the mother of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton, telling Ohioans not to vote for her daughter. The video initially circulated on Twitter without identifying its sponsor, raising questions about Ohio’s political advertising disclosure requirements. Ramaswamy’s campaign didn’t run from it. His spokesperson called Acton a “serial fabulist” and insisted the public needed to be warned about her. Then, according to Axios, the campaign committed $4 million to putting this garbage on the air. Four million dollars! Somewhere, a political consultant is collecting a handsome paycheck for convincing a gubernatorial candidate that publicly humiliating a survivor of childhood sexual abuse was a brilliant use of campaign resources. I would love to sit in on that strategy meeting just to find out whether anyone in the room possessed a functioning conscience.
The problem with this ad is that Acton is estranged from her mother for reasons that should make any decent human being recoil. Acton was removed from her mother’s home at age twelve after her stepfather was indicted on a charge of raping her. Her mother went to court to support the man her daughter had accused, then left town with him. As Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, explained, their mother “stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.” Think about the magnitude of that betrayal. A child reports sexual abuse, her mother sides with the accused, and decades later a multimillionaire politician decides the mother would make an excellent character witness against the daughter.
What Vivek doesn’t seem to understand is how many people can identify with some version of Acton’s experience. Ask anybody who grew up with an asshole stepfather and a mother who consistently took the man’s side, even when her own child was suffering. Family therapists have studied these dynamics for decades, particularly the emotional damage that occurs when a parent prioritizes a romantic relationship over a child’s safety and well-being. Acton’s experience involves an especially horrific allegation, but the underlying betrayal is painfully recognizable. There are adults walking around today who haven’t spoken to a parent in twenty years for precisely that reason. And Vivek, displaying all the emotional intelligence of a parking meter, thinks Ohioans are going to watch this woman attack her estranged daughter and automatically conclude the daughter must be the problem. His spokesperson even presented Arthur as one of the people who knows Acton best. Somebody needs to explain to these idiots that being biologically related to someone doesn’t automatically make you a credible witness to their character.
