Obama Rallies Ohio Democrats, Condemns Ramaswamy Ad Featuring Acton's Estranged Mother

On Saturday in Ohio, former President Barack Obama stood on a stage next to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and told the crowd that his Republican opponents had lost any sense of decency. His sharpest words were for Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican running against Acton, whose campaign has kept running an ad built around Acton's estranged mother.

Obama said of Ramaswamy, "In recent days, we've seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to." He noted that Acton has spoken movingly about a painful childhood of abuse, neglect and homelessness. "There's a decency we should expect out of our public officials," he said, adding that he did not know how standards had fallen far enough for someone to run an ad like that.

The video features Acton's birth mother, Donna Arthur, who calls her daughter "a liar" and insinuates she has mental health issues. Ramaswamy has defended the decision to keep the ad on the air as fair game. President Trump defended it forcefully as he voted in West Palm Beach on Saturday. "The mother said that Amy Acton is a liar and she's no good," he said, adding, "I don't think you can get a better reference on that." He said that if his own mother had said anything bad about him, it would be front and center. Vice President JD Vance has also stood by the ad, even as Republican leaders in Ohio, including Gov. Mike DeWine, have objected.

Acton, who served as Ohio's health director during the COVID-19 era, has never hidden her childhood. Her mother lost custody of her children after their stepfather, Arthur's husband Cledith Arthur, was indicted on a rape charge involving Acton. The abuse allegedly took place from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur failed to appear in court and became a fugitive. Donna Arthur stayed married to him until he died in 2004.

Before the rally, Acton told CBS News she hoped people would see all the facts. She was removed from her mother's custody, she said, and her mother "was not well." She and her brother endured abuse and neglect from a very young age, even before the stepfather, who she said "was not a good person" and made things worse. He was indicted by a grand jury and became a fugitive, and her mother chose to leave with him. Acton said she has not seen her mother since she was 12, in a courthouse. "This is a sad story," she said. She called the ad a line crossed too far and said no one running for office should endure it, but added that her childhood made her stronger.

Onstage, she addressed Ramaswamy directly. "My opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood to save his stumbling campaign, but it's not going to work," she said. "Decency still matters." She called him out of touch and out for himself, and a danger to her state.

Obama, 65, also turned to Trump's record. He said the president has failed to lower costs, a central campaign promise, and has focused instead on a new White House ballroom and a helipad on the South Lawn. "He should be on HGTV," Obama joked. He also said Americans have Trump for another two years but are not stuck with "a spineless Congress and Republican governors." After two years of what he called chaos, cruelty, corruption and incompetence, he said, voters can say enough is enough.

Sherrod Brown, the former three-term senator trying to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Husted, also appeared. Ohio has become more reliably Republican, but it is a hotly contested battleground this year, and Trump and Vance have both visited in recent weeks to boost Husted and Ramaswamy.

Obama went on to Detroit that night to campaign in Michigan with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official who won a divisive primary by less than a percentage point and faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers. Next week Obama is due at a Georgia rally with Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, with the midterms only days away.