A day after the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy, stunned political observers by releasing an ad that featured the estranged mother of his opponent, Amy Acton, calling Acton "a liar," Vice President JD Vance told reporters during an appearance in the state that he was "disgusted." But the vice president, widely…
Page F125From§Eachthe evening edition — 24 October 2026
Vance calls the ad a preview of 2028 'venom' already costing Republicans the Ohio governor's race.
As it ran on the front
The Guardian asked this week whether JD Vance's rising midterm travel amounts to a dry run for a 2028 campaign of his own. On October 21st, in Ohio, that travel produced a specific answer. The vice president told reporters he was "disgusted" — not by an ad that put his candidate's opponent's estranged mother on camera calling her daughter a liar, but by the Republicans "whining" about it. Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign had just put $4 million behind that ad. Amy Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, appears in it; Acton's own account, already on the record, names Arthur's husband as the man who raped her as a child. Vance did not dispute any of that. Coverage of his remarks framed them as a preview of the "venom" he is prepared to bring to a campaign of his own in 2028.
Two days later, on October 23rd, Ramaswamy offered NBC a different defense: the ad, he said, had nothing to do with the abuse allegations at all. That does not reconcile with the preview his running mate had just offered reporters. Either the ad is venom worth rehearsing for a national campaign, or it has nothing to do with the thing that would make it venomous. A campaign gets to claim one of those, not both.…
…(cont) By October 24th, Ramaswamy was accusing Acton of lying about the ad outright; court records, per that day's reporting, contradict her mother's version of events. The same day, the Cook Political Report — which on October 20th had been moving Minnesota toward the GOP and South Carolina away from it on ordinary polling grounds — moved Ohio's governor's race from "Toss-Up" to "Leans Democrat." The forecaster named its own reason: a week of backlash over the ad.
The receipts carry no figure for what it costs a party to buy back a race once a nonpartisan forecaster reclassifies it. They carry only the reclassification — Toss-Up to Leans Democrat — with the ad named as the cause, four years before the man who called the travel a dry run is a declared candidate for anything.
What Vance billed as an audition for 2028 produced its first line item in 2026, in Ohio, against his own party. The dry run already has a price. The campaign hasn't started.
“You send your running mate out to call an attack on a rape survivor's own family history "venom" and a preview of the next four years, and a scorekeeper who doesn't root for either side marks your own race a loser for it. That's not an ad buy, hon, that's a bill for what honesty costs when you skip it. The guy auditioning for 2028 just found out what his playbook costs in 2026, in somebody else's governor's race.”
“Look, it's about trust, it's a mother's own words on camera, that's testimony, not venom — wait, did Vance say venom? I didn't see that part. The real point is Cook's just one forecaster, toss-up ratings move around all the time, that's not a verdict, it's a Tuesday. Did I just spend three sentences defending a race I'm about to say doesn't matter? Forget I said any of that.”
The receipts
This live blog is now closed. Sign up for the Breaking News US email With less than two weeks until the midterms, my colleague Jonathan Freedland and Guardian US columnist Moira Donegan are answering your questions in this week’s episode of Politics Weekly America. They break down the final stretch ahead of these hugely consequential…
Election forecaster Cook Political Report shifted Ohio’s gubernatorial race toward Democratic candidate Amy Acton on Friday after a week of backlash over an ad Republican Vivek Ramaswamy ran featuring her estranged mother. The outlet shifted the race between Ramaswamy and Acton from a “Toss-Up” to “Leans Democrat.”
Vice-president’s visibility has risen as Trump’s popularity wanes, but path to inherit Maga throne is more complicated than it may seem A day after JD Vance suggested Donald Trump would endorse him if he runs for president, the vice-president shifted awkwardly in the Oval Office as his boss was asked about the remark. “He’s a very…
Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is defending the ad featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother despite backlash from both parties. NBC News’ Priscilla Thompson explains.
· Vance says he's disgusted with GOP "whining" over anti-Acton ad with her estranged mother from the morgue, 21 Oct 2026
· Ramaswamy pours $4 million into ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother from the morgue, 21 Oct 2026
· Cook Political Report shifts Minnesota Senate race toward GOP while South Carolina race moves left from the morgue, 20 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.