Ramaswamy takes responsibility for ad with Amy Acton’s mother and will spend millions to promote it

In it, her birth mother Donna Arthur calls her “a liar” and insinuates she has mental health issues.The ad began circulating overnight, just two weeks before Election Day. Acton, Ohio's former public health director, is in a tight race against Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump-backed biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate who has benefited from spending on his behalf that has exceeded $120 million.The online ad, which first surfaced in a post by an Ohio political blogger, spread quickly across social media platforms. It did not include the “paid for” tag that is legally required to air on TV so viewers can know who produced and paid for it.

Brynes, who blogs as “The Rooster,” told CNN he got the video from a voter who viewed it as part of a poll and recorded it.Connie Luck, a spokesperson for Ramaswamy's campaign, said Acton's mother was not paid for the one-minute spot. She said the ad will air both online and on TV in the closing days of the campaign.All day Tuesday, Acton condemned Ramaswamy for the ad, already suspecting her opponent was behind the attack.“I won’t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I’m complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse," she told Spectrum News, a cable news outlet in Ohio.She said Ramaswamy was accused of similar personal attacks during his run for the GOP presidential nomination: “This is a lifelong pattern with my opponent.”Ramaswamy’s campaign initially issued a statement that did not address if he was responsible for the ad or knew who produced it. In the statement, Luck said Acton “has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of.”In a statement released by Acton's campaign, her brother, Philip St…