Twelve days before the midterms, President Trump seems to have a question for his party.
Do you support Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial attack ad against his Democratic rival, or are you a RINO?
This week, Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor in Ohio, released a jaw-dropping television ad: a direct-to-camera appeal from the mother of Dr. Amy Acton, who has been estranged from her daughter for decades, calling her daughter a liar and urging people not to vote for her.
The ad has prompted a geyser of criticism from Ramaswamy’s own party and led Trump and Vice President JD Vance to dig in on his behalf, reopening a larger divide among Republicans — one that has been playing out in Ohio for years — at a moment when many would have preferred to maintain a united front.
It also sets up one more big question for Nov. 3: More than a decade into the Trump era, can scorched-earth politics still backfire?
‘Troubling,’ or ‘pay dirt’?
Acton is the former director of the Ohio Department of Health, and she and Ramaswamy are locked in a contentious and remarkably tight race, given Ohio’s Republican leanings.
She hasn’t seen or spoken to her mother since 1978, the year that her stepfather was charged with raping her. She was 12 then, and she later told an Ohio newspaper that the abuse had gone on for three years. Her mother supported her stepfather, not Acton.
The attack ad did not directly raise the allegations of molestation, but it deployed an unspeakably painful family history as a workaday political weapon, as Acton’s mother charged that her daughter had lied about her difficult upbringing.
The ad has been roundly denounced by a slew of Republicans, from the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley to, remarkably, Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio — the man who has the job Ramaswamy is hoping to get. DeWine this morning called it “deeply, deeply troubling.”
This afternoon, Trump gave a full-throated endorsement of the ad, calling it “pay dirt” and eviscerating DeWine for speaking out against it, calling him “disloyal.”
“Vivek should keep it up, and let everyone listen to the mother of a defective, dishonest, and incapable Candidate, explain how the daughter is a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!” Trump wrote on social media.
Yesterday, Vance, a former Ohio senator, said he was “disgusted” by Republicans for “whining” about the advertisement.
The changing shape of Ohio
Ramaswamy, 41, ran for president in 2024 as a critic of “woke” and an acolyte of Trump. A former start-up executive, he was briefly involved with Elon Musk’s DOGE effort before he launched a run for governor of Ohio last year.
His bombastic and internet-savvy political style has always been an awkward fit with the Republican establishment there, and the bust-up over the ad has brought those tensions to the fore.
Campbell Robertson, a reporter on The Times’s National Desk who covers Ohio, told me that Ramaswamy is part of a larger shift in the state’s politics. Not everyone in the state had been comfortable with the change — and that was before the ad.
The archetypal Republican in Ohio used to be DeWine, who has served in every conceivable public post, from county prosecutor to U.S. senator, and finally, governor. Now, that mold is broken.
You had Vance, who came out of the private sector with no electoral experience in 2022. Then Bernie Moreno, who pushed that model a little further in 2024. And Ramaswamy was pushing it even further.
Until now, Campbell said, the establishment largely kept quiet about Ramaswamy. This ad has changed that.
Other Ohio Republicans to denounce the ad include Frank LaRose, the secretary of state; Lydia Mihalik, director of the Department of Development; a former governor,John Kasich; and a former senator,Rob Portman. Ramaswamy’s far-right opponent in the primary, Casey Putsch, also slammed the ad.
Even Senator Jon Husted, a Trump favorite who is running in a tight race to keep his seat, said: “I would not have run that ad.”
Get Caught Up
In the midterms
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A covert Russian influence operation is spreading a fabricated claim of misconduct about James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas. Most of Russia’s election disinformation in this cycle has targeted Democrats.
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A federal judge blocked the Homeland Security Department from carrying out most of its field operations focused on uncovering voter fraud in nine states, including California.
On the trail
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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was in Maine today, where she held a town hall event withTroy Jackson, the Democratic Senate candidate. Jackson said Ocasio-Cortez was “exactly what I want from my government — somebody that’s not afraid to stand up, fight for what she believes in.”
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Trump is in Iowa to hold a rally with Ashley Hinson, the Republican Senate candidate, while Vance campaigned in Nebraska today for Senator Pete Ricketts.
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Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, will be in New York’s Hudson Valley this weekend with Cait Conley. Conley, a combat veteran, is trying to unseat Representative Mike Lawler in one of the country’s most competitive districts.
In Washington
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The Justice Department is investigating Corey Lewandowski, who managed Trump’s first presidential campaign, over accusations that he profited from his role as a top adviser to the Homeland Security Department.
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Calley Means, a leader of the Make America Healthy Again movement, has resigned from the Trump administration after growing frustrated with stalled progress on the MAHA agenda.
in one graphic
In 2024, young voters’ support for the Democratic Party was at its lowest point in two decades. Now, those 18-to-29-year-olds are returning to the party in sizable numbers.
Claire Cain Miller looked at data from the most recent New York Times/Siena University poll. A few of her takeaways:
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The economy is the biggest factor for young people’s shift: 94 percent said economic conditions were either poor or fair, and 86 percent disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy.
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The Iran war is also deeply unpopular, with 87 percent of young voters disapproving.
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Young voters are increasingly worried about the country’s future. Fifty-three percent of those polled told us they feared the United States was in danger of failing as a nation. (Two years ago, that figure was 38 percent.)
Related: The Times crunched the numbers and found that, yes, life really has gotten more expensive over the past few decades — often far outpacing inflation.
Quote of the Day
“Who’s that guy who threw a punch?”
That was Trump at a rally last night in Clemson, S.C., appearing to celebrate an attendee who had physically confronted a protester.
Protesters interrupted the rally at least a half dozen times, screaming and flipping him the middle finger. Rallygoers responded with aggression, often getting into altercations with the demonstrators.
Trump, for his part, did little to de-escalate the tense atmosphere. “They’re terrible people,” he said after another disruption.
Read more from Emily Davies, who was there.
Debate Takeaways
There were debates last night in the closely contested Senate races in Michigan and Kansas, and one surprising word appeared in our recaps of both events: “civil.”
In Michigan …
Mike Rogers, the Republican, made an appeal to Democratic voters who had not supported his opponent, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, during the primary — particularly Black and Jewish voters.
And El-Sayed tried something similar, pointing to the crowds he drew on a tour across Michigan’s conservative Upper Peninsula last week. Voters there, he said, brought up the same concerns about costs as people he had met elsewhere in the state.
In Kansas …
Roger Marshall, the Republican, worked to connect his opponent, Adam Hamilton, to the broader Democratic Party. Marshall repeatedly invoked Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, and said Hamilton would be beholden to him. Hamilton, for his part, tried to keep his distance, describing Joe Biden’s immigration policy as a “disaster.”
Marshall did not take the same tack with his own party. He said Trump had strengthened the nation’s military, secured the borders and passed a sweeping tax cut.
ONE LAST THING
I ate this plate of lightly fried chicken tenders earlier this month, while I was out reporting on a Senate candidate whose grandfather claimed to have invented the dish. Which candidate is that?
Click an answer, and it’ll take you to my latest story so you can see if you were right. We’ve made the link free to read.
Taylor Robinson contributed to this newsletter.
The post The Ad Dividing the Republican Party appeared first on New York Times.
