MONROE, Ohio — Republican voters packed Izzy’s Deli in Monroe on Saturday, October 24, to see Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and most had the same message about the controversy over his latest campaign ad: they do not care. Around 100 people crowded into the suburban Cincinnati deli, known for what it calls the “World’s Greatest Reuben,” as Ramaswamy and other Republicans on the ballot stopped in Butler County as part of a weekend bus tour.
Attendees eating Reubens and potato pancakes told reporters their top concerns were securing the country’s borders, bringing jobs to Ohio and pushing back against socialist candidates — not the ad attacking Democrat Amy Acton. The ad features Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Stearns Arthur, accusing Acton of lying about her upbringing, and it has drawn criticism from a number of Republicans as well as Democrats.
“Dirty politics is dirty politics,” said George Kochanowski, 72, who drove from Springboro to meet Ramaswamy and Husted. Gary Cates, a Republican State Central Committee member representing Butler County who drove from West Chester, said the ad is part of running the campaign Ramaswamy needs to run to win, arguing the campaign’s foundation is that Acton cannot be trusted.
The ad has split prominent Republicans. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine condemned it and called on Ramaswamy to take it down, as did former Ohio Gov. John Kasich. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance defended it. Ramaswamy told reporters on October 23 that the ad has “nothing to do with childhood abuse (or) sexual abuse,” saying his campaign condemns that as forcefully as anyone and that the ad was about what he called a consistent track record of Acton telling lies, including during this campaign.
Other attendees voiced broader worries. Jay Radabaugh, 83, of Lebanon, said he is concerned about communists taking over the country, while Kay Radabaugh, 79, also of Lebanon, said she disliked Acton for her role as director of the Ohio Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic and supported the ad. Republican leaders have routinely labeled Acton a socialist, though Acton has explicitly stated she is not a socialist, and her platform includes property tax relief, a tax cut for working families and more spending on public schools.
At the Monroe event, Ramaswamy’s running mate, Rob McColley, criticized Acton’s campaign for running ads that he said lied about Ramaswamy, referencing an October 1 Acton campaign ad featuring an Ohio man whose wife has Alzheimer’s and who accused Ramaswamy of pushing an Alzheimer’s drug he knew did not work. PolitiFact found that ad was “mostly false.”
Outside, one opponent stood out: Michael Pogue, Ramaswamy’s former teacher at Princeton Junior High School, who sat with signs calling on his former student to retract the ad and apologize to Acton. Pogue, who drove from Anderson Township and said he taught Ramaswamy in eighth grade, said he was disappointed. He hoped to speak with Ramaswamy, but the candidate boarded the bus for the next stop in Hamilton before they could talk.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0