As Ramaswamy doubles down on $4 million behind an ad attacking a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, 314 Action Fund has now bundled $3 million for Dr. Amy Acton
Here are the facts.
Vivek Ramaswamy hit a new low making an ad about Dr. Amy Acton’s childhood.
And the President of the United States defended it. Again, and again.
The least surprising thing about this October surprise is that Donald Trump defended it. Standing with the mother who stayed married to her daughter’s abuser was never going to be a line he wouldn’t cross.
But now, support for Dr. Acton is surging, with the Cook Political Report moving the race towards Democrats.
“Dr. Amy Acton survived something no child should ever have to endure, and she spent her life taking care of other people because of it,” said Erik Polyak, Executive Director of 314 Action. “Vivek Ramaswamy looked at her trauma and turned it into a desperate political ad. Donald Trump looked at it and egged him on because he knows Republicans are losing Ohio. Ohioans are already rallying to reject this heinous brand of politics in November and elect Dr. Amy Acton as Governor.”
As Polyak told CNN on Thursday: “Ohioans remember Acton as the leader who led with compassion and care.”
314 Action Fund has now bundled over $3 million for Dr. Acton’s campaign, recording a surge in grassroots donations over the past week.
Dr. Acton is also part of a historic wave of doctors running for office this cycle. As The Hill reported on Friday, medical professionals running for Congress and statewide office now outnumber those serving in Congress, many of them driven to run by the MAHA movement’s grip on national health policy. 314 Action is backing more than 120 of them, and 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton told The Hill that Dr. Acton draws “a stark contrast between a serious candidate who is looking to serve her community in a new way, and whatever you want to call Vivek Ramaswamy.”
None of the events of the past week should surprise anyone who knows how Vivek Ramaswamy got rich — by promoting a drug for Alzheimer’s patients that didn’t work:
- In 2014, his company paid GlaxoSmithKline just $5 million for intepirdine, an Alzheimer’s drug GSK had abandoned after four failed trials.
- He then went on CNBC and claimed it was “statistically significantly better than the placebo,” leaning on a reworked analysis of GSK’s old data co-authored by his own mother, an Axovant employee.
- His company, Axovant, raised more than $360 million in its 2015 IPO, and booked $36.7 million in stock compensation for Ramaswamy the next year.
- In September 2017, intepirdine failed its Phase 3 trial. Axovant’s stock fell nearly 74% and never recovered. Investors lost their shirts. Ramaswamy got rich.
What They’re Saying
The backlash has been bipartisan, and it’s growing—while Acton leads Ramaswamy 50% to 44% in the CNN Poll of Polls.
- CNN: Amy Acton responds to Ramaswamy ad featuring her estranged mother
- CNBC: Trump defends Ramaswamy ad with Acton’s estranged mom after bipartisan criticism
- CNN: Trump tells Ramaswamy not to take down controversial ad featuring his opponent’s estranged mother
- CNN: Key Ohio Republicans criticize Ramaswamy’s ad — at least one GOP candidate personally asked him not to air it
- 13 ABC Toledo: Gov. Mike DeWine calls the ad “deeply, deeply troubling”
- AP / PBS NewsHour: Ramaswamy campaign says it produced ad with Acton’s mother and will spend millions to promote it
- NBC News: Ramaswamy’s campaign confirms it made the viral attack ad rattling Ohio’s race for governor
- The 19th: Amy Acton survived childhood abuse. Ramaswamy is using it to attack her.
- Mediaite: CNN’s conservative panelists trash Ramaswamy over “disgusting” Acton attack ad
- CNN: Alyssa Farah Griffin: “Anyone behind it should be ashamed”