Obama blasts Ramaswamy's ad using Amy Acton's mother at Ohio rally
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Barack Obama tore into Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for running a campaign video aimed at the estranged mother of Ohio health official Amy Acton, while urging voters to demand basic decency and higher standards from politicians.
Barack Obama spoke to a crowd in Ohio on Saturday and sharply denounced a campaign advertisement released by Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that features the estranged mother of Democratic health official Amy Acton. Obama said the ad crossed a moral line, adding, "In recent days, we've seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to."
Acton, who survived childhood abuse and homelessness, responded on stage by accusing Ramaswamy of weaponizing her personal history for political gain and insisting that "decency still matters." She said her difficult upbringing helped build her resilience and warned that tactics like these should not be normalized in elections.
President Trump and Ohio Lieutenant Governor JD Vance defended the advertisement, while other Ohio Republican leaders, including Governor Mike DeWine, called for it to be removed. Obama also took aim at President Trump’s attention to White House renovations, joking that the president seemed more interested in home improvement than governing.
The former president underscored the wider stakes of the midterm races, saying voters can push back against what he described as “chaos, cruelty, corruption and incompetence” by backing Democratic candidates in key battleground states.