Vivek Ramaswamy spent $4 million on attack ad featuring opponent’s estranged mother. Poll shows it pushed away voters: ‘It just totally ticked me off’

A new poll suggests that Vivek Ramaswamy may have hurt his own campaign by spending over $4 million on an attack ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton. The survey indicates that the commercial actually drove some voters toward Acton rather than helping Ramaswamy gain ground in the Ohio gubernatorial race, Newsweek reports.

The Suffolk University-USA TODAY Ohio survey, which questioned 500 likely voters between October 21 and October 26, found that 72 percent of those asked had seen or heard about the ad shortly after its October 22 release.

While the campaign put a significant amount of money behind the spot, the data shows that only one person switched their support to Ramaswamy because of it. In contrast, seven respondents reported that the ad pushed them to move from supporting Ramaswamy to backing Acton.

Reports state that Acton has not spoken to her mother since 1978

Brenda Malcolm, an independent voter from the Northland neighborhood of Columbus, noted that the ad influenced her perspective. “It just totally ticked me off,” Malcolm said. “To go contact a mother that hasn’t seen her daughter in 50 years and get this statement from her. The mother doesn’t know anything about Amy.”

Acton has not reportedly spoken to her mother since 1978. Despite this distance, the ad featured the mother criticizing both the political record and the childhood account provided by her daughter. The campaign committed to airing this commercial through Election Day, even though Republican Governor Mike DeWine and former Governor John Kasich both asked for it to be pulled.

David Paleologos, who serves as the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, shared his thoughts on the decision to air the content. “You only do an ad like that if you’re trailing by a large margin,” Paleologos said. He described the move as a “Hail Mary strategy.” He added, “You have to take a gamble, and sometimes the gamble pays off, and you score, and sometimes the pass gets intercepted or blocked.”

The current state of the race remains tight. Acton holds a lead with 48 percent compared to 44 percent for Ramaswamy, while Libertarian candidate Don Kissick sits at 3.6 percent. Because the difference between the top two candidates is only four percentage points, the outcome remains statistically too close to call.

The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.