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Big Tech and AI Data Centers Take Walloping From Angry and Organized Voters Nationwide
“In state after state and race after race, Big Tech has failed to deliver—and everyday Americans have won,” said Mitch Jones, deputy director of Food and Water Action.
Nov 04, 2026
The results of both ballot initiatives and legislative elections Tuesday night underscored what numerous polls have shown for months: Despite President Donald Trump's insistence to the contrary, Americans don't want data centers in their communities and are demanding that Big Tech, including artificial intelligence companies, be reined in.
Dozens of cities and towns across the country—including in Ohio, which has been pushed as a hub for the expansion of energy-sucking, water-guzzling data centers—resoundingly voting for moratoriums on their construction, blocking proposed projects like a $2 billion data center Amazon had planned for Sunbury, Ohio.
In all, communities across the US passed 43 out of 44 initiatives that proposed banning or pausing construction on data centers or infrastructure of a certain size.
Sunbury, a small city of less than 9,000 residents, mobilized to pass a ban on data centers larger than 25 megawatts, with more than 78% of voters supporting the moratorium.
The ban "gives us more of a say in the outcome of what happens in our community,” Trey Dockendorf, who helped organize the campaign, told WCMH. Amazon had planned to begin construction in 2028 and property tax breaks for the massive facility could have spanned more than 30 years.
"People do not want data centers where they can ruin neighborhoods, ruin communities, or put people at risk," Larry Thode, who lives near the proposed site for the Amazon project, told 10TV.
Wide margins were reported in elections across the country and in towns across Ohio, where 21 initiatives appeared on ballots.
More than 82% of voters in Granville approved a ban on all data center construction in the village, along with 76% of voters in Hubbard and 77% of people in Urbana.
Farm Action president Angela Huffman recounted how her community of Upper Sandusky also rallied around a proposed moratorium, which was backed by more than 76% of residents.
After Smartland Energy proposed a $900 million center in the town last year, residents "filled public meetings, challenged the proposed approval process, and pressed city officials for answers," wrote Huffman, eventually pushing Smartland to withdraw its zoning request.
She continued:
Local residents worked with attorneys at Conserve Ohio, who drafted the charter amendment that ultimately became Ordinance 85-14.
The amendment would prohibit construction of data centers with an electrical demand or peak load exceeding 25 megawatts.
To place it on the November ballot, we needed to collect signatures from registered city voters.
We were initially told that 155 valid signatures would be sufficient. We collected well beyond that number, knowing some signatures would be rejected during verification.
On August 3, we submitted petitions containing 301 signatures. Of those, 192 were accepted.
We then learned that the city’s charter required 212 valid signatures. That left us 20 valid signatures short.
With just hours remaining before the filing deadline, we headed back out to collect signatures, determined not to let months of work fall short.
On August 5, we submitted another 50 signatures. Election officials accepted 37. Our final total was 229 valid signatures, just 17 more than required.
We had qualified for the November ballot.
Ohioans also elected Democrat Amy Acton to be governor, after a campaign in which Acton supported a statewide moratorium on data centers, and unseated Republican Sen. Jon Husted, whom Democratic Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown derided as "the face of data centers," pointing to his support for tech giants' investment in Ohio when he served as lieutenant governor.
Maine was home to the second-highest number of data center-related ballot initiatives, and voters overwhelmingly supported measures banning construction for 180 days or, in the case of North Berwick, indefinitely for data centers larger than 25,000 square feet.
“Let’s not destroy our nice Maine environment to help produce this thing, and have water droughts and everybody surrounded by really loud noise," Kayley Buzzell of Sabattus told The Maine Monitor. The town voted 66-33% in favor of a moratorium on data centers of 10,000 sq ft or 20 megawatts or more, until May 2027.
Other victorious Democratic gubernatorial candidates who pledged to fight the unregulated growth of data centers, which Trump has aggressively pushed as AI giants poured tens of millions of dollars into the midterm elections, include Govs.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia and Gina Hinojosa in Texas. Hinojosa consistently called for an immediate moratorium on data center development, and Lance Bottoms advocated for a temporary statewide pause and accountability to stop companies from driving up residents' electricity costs.
And in South Carolina, Sen.-elect Annie Andrews (D) labeled her opponent, Republican Sen. Darline Graham, "Data Center Darline" as a super political action committee aligned with the industry spent $1.5 million on advertising for Graham.
The victories of citizen-led ballot initiatives and vocally anti-AI candidates against well-funded allies of Big Tech served as a "clear rebuke of the unchecked AI data center build-out," said Food and Water Action.
“Voters across the country have emphatically rejected the push for AI data centers. In state after state and race after race, Big Tech has failed to deliver—and everyday Americans have won,” said Mitch Jones, deputy director of the group. “Not only in Washington, but in state capitols and village halls across the country, newly elected leaders are poised to stand up to the unregulated, reckless build-out of hyperscale data centers wherever they are proposed."
“Congressional Democrats now have a mandate to stand up to Big Tech," said Jones. "They must start by rejecting the pro-polluter 'permitting reform' bill before them in the lame duck Congress. And a desperately needed moratorium on new data center construction must be enacted, so lawmakers and community leaders have the time to determine if—not how—this out-of-control industry can ever be safely regulated.”
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'He Cannot Undo the Cruelty': Ramaswamy Stops Airing Vile Attack Ad After Over a Week of Outrage
"Vivek Ramaswamy should never have run his despicable ad in the first place, and it’s totally unsurprising that he took it off the air in the most cowardly way possible."
Oct 30, 2026
Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Thursday that his repulsive attack ad featuring his Democratic opponent's estranged biological mother will no longer air on television after more than a week of nationwide outrage.
Ramaswamy did not apologize for running the ad, in which Donna Arthur calls her daughter, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, a liar. The ad doesn't mention that Arthur lost custody of Acton and her brother after their stepfather—Arthur's husband—was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12.
Ramaswamy’s campaign initially planned to spend $4 million airing the ad in Ohio, but tracking data shows it spent just a quarter of that total.
"It ran to completion, and we've put up four other ads," Ramaswamy, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said during a campaign stop in Vandalia on Thursday.
Addie Bullock, a spokesperson for Acton's campaign, said in a statement on Thursday that "Vivek Ramaswamy should never have run his despicable ad in the first place, and it’s totally unsurprising that he took it off the air in the most cowardly way possible, without even the hint of an apology to Dr. Acton, her family, or to the people of Ohio."
Others said that discontinuing the ad doesn't reverse the damage inflicted by Ramaswamy, who—according to polling commissioned by a Republican group—has fallen further behind Acton in the days leading up to next week's midterms.
"Vivek Ramaswamy may have stopped airing his vicious attack on Amy Acton, but he cannot undo the cruelty of creating it," said civil rights attorney Areva Martin.
The ad began circulating on social media on October 19, without paid-for disclosures required by federal law. Ramaswamy confirmed two days later that his campaign was behind the ad, and announced plans to spend millions airing the spot even as it sparked bipartisan backlash—including from Ohio's outgoing Republican governor.
But US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance defended the ad, with Trump encouraging Ramaswamy to keep it on the air and dismissing Acton's account of childhood sexual assault.
“The Press is trying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it’s so good!” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Who wouldn’t use such an Ad?”
The White House's public defense of the ad stands in contrast to the message Ramaswamy received privately from "multiple Republicans" before the spot aired, according to Zeteo.
“It’s siding with the rapist protector mom,” an unnamed Trump adviser told the outlet of Ramaswamy's ad. “This was never a good idea."
NEW on @zeteo_newsSources say Amy Acton's mom seemed mentally unwell when Ramaswamy's ad was filmed & she had trouble keeping a coherent narrative on the past.Some wanted to vet her more but *Ramaswamy himself* pushed ahead.@JSweetLI & Swin Suebsaeng:https://t.co/2yl7Vh0K5P
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) October 28, 2026
Ramaswamy's ad led the editorial board of Ohio's largest newspaper, The Plain Dealer, to reverse its recently announced policy against endorsing candidates in major races and publish an endorsement of Acton.
"A candidate who uses childhood sexual abuse as a weapon against the person who endured it has crossed a line that Ohioans should defend, whatever their party," the editorial board wrote. "We are better than this. We have a responsibility to show it."
"And our endorsement of Acton rests on more than Ramaswamy’s failure to meet a basic standard of decency," the editorial added. "She has earned consideration on her own record, her preparation, and her commitment to the people she seeks to serve."
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Vivek Ramaswamy's Shameful Political Ad Encourages Abuse Survivors to Stay Silent
What message are we sending our children when a woman who told her story in a courtroom at 12 has her credibility publicly questioned nearly 50 years later? And all because she’s running for political office?
Oct 29, 2026
So we’re using a woman’s rape by her stepfather at age 12 to win elections now?
The headline out of Ohio this week took my breath away. As I read the details, all I could think about was what it felt like to be 12 years old, worried I wouldn’t be believed. And I wondered what had happened to shame.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, released a campaign ad featuring his opponent, Dr. Amy Acton’s estranged mother, calling her a liar.
It’s 2026. After #MeToo and after years of survivors fighting to be heard, we’re still watching someone’s childhood sexual abuse being used as a political weapon.
What the ad doesn’t mention is that Amy hasn’t seen her mother since 1978, when she was 12 years old. That’s when she and her younger brother were removed from their mother’s custody after their stepfather was charged with raping Amy. Her mother remained married to Amy’s stepfather until his death in 2004.
So here we are, almost 50 years later, where a political campaign has brought a sexual abuse survivor’s estranged mother back into the picture. Not to reconcile, not for healing, but to publicly question her own daughter’s credibility.
It’s astonishing to me what Amy has accomplished despite everything she endured as a child. She became a doctor, built a career, and went on to make a life that wasn’t defined by her past. But no amount of success or distance from childhood trauma makes someone immune to being hurt all over again. Especially when the person questioning your credibility is someone who was supposed to protect you.
As an incest survivor, I can tell you that one of the greatest fears is not being believed. Someone questioning what happened, suggesting we’re lying, or deciding that the person who hurt us is more credible than we are can keep children from speaking up and getting help.
The bravery it took for 12-year-old Amy to come forward and testify against her stepfather is astounding. Her younger brother has said that she endured even more abuse trying to protect him. Most of us will never know that kind of bravery.
But I’ve seen it in the survivors I’ve met through my work with organizations trying to break the silence around incest. Some of these organizations teach children to recognize abuse and tell a trusted adult.
Amy did exactly what we ask children to do. She spoke up. But what message are we sending our children when a woman who told her story in a courtroom at 12 has her credibility publicly questioned nearly 50 years later? And all because she’s running for political office.
But this didn’t happen in a vacuum. And it’s not just a mother-versus-daughter situation.
Someone in Vivek’s campaign had the idea and thought, “Yes, let’s do it.” Other people in the campaign agreed it was a good idea. Calls were made. Emails were sent. An ad was produced. And at every step along the way, someone could have said, “No, we’re not doing this. It’s a terrible idea.”
But no one stopped it.
The ad surfaced, the backlash began, and Vivek’s campaign announced it would spend $4 million promoting it anyway. Vivek defended the ad, and the vice president of the United States, JD Vance, said, “Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern.”
Really?
Fortunately, not all political leaders agreed. Ohio’s Republican Governor, Mike DeWine, publicly called for the ad to be taken down. And Lydia Mihalik, a member of his cabinet, said, “I don’t have to agree with Amy Acton’s politics to believe that exploiting someone’s childhood trauma is wrong.”
Having support matters whether it’s right after the abuse or years later. In my case, when I told my mom that I’d been sexually abused, she believed me and immediately got me into therapy. And I’m grateful for that.
But being believed didn’t erase what happened. The shadow of the abuse still follows me, just like it does for many survivors. Even with support, I spent years learning to trust myself and make sense of what happened. It’s impacted my relationship with my husband, how I communicate, how I show up at work, how I parent, and how I see the world. The effects of the abuse from decades ago don’t just disappear with time. And seeing a story like Amy’s play out in the news brings those feelings right back to the surface.
I think what upsets me most about this story isn’t just what Amy endured as a child or her painful relationship with her mother. It’s that all of it is now being used against her.
Think about it. A 12-year-old girl was raped by her stepfather. She found the courage to explain what he did to her in a courtroom. And nearly 50 years later, her estranged mother appears in a political ad questioning her credibility.
And somewhere along the way, people decided this was a good way to win votes.
It’s 2026. After #MeToo and after years of survivors fighting to be heard, we’re still watching someone’s childhood sexual abuse being used as a political weapon.
This should never have happened.
But it did. And even after the backlash, people are still defending it.
Shame on them.
The US National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), by texting "START" to 88788, or through chat at thehotline.org. RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or by texting "HOPE" to 64673. Both offer 24/7, free, and confidential support. DomesticShelters.org has a list of global and national resources.
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Vance Defends 'Vile' Ramaswamy Ad, Offering Preview of 'Venom' He's Likely to Deploy in 2028 Race
Vivek Ramaswamy's ad exposed him as "digusting, vile, and unfit," said one former Republican lawmaker, but "JD Vance arrives to show there’s someone even worse."
Oct 21, 2026
A day after the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy, stunned political observers by releasing an ad that featured the estranged mother of his opponent, Amy Acton, calling Acton "a liar," Vice President JD Vance told reporters during an appearance in the state that he was "disgusted."
But the vice president, widely viewed as the likely heir to President Donald Trump's far-right MAGA movement, wasn't disturbed by the content of the ad, in which Acton's biological mother, Donna Arthur, accused Acton of lying about experiencing homelessness as a child.
He wasn't troubled by the fact that Ramaswamy's campaign had enlisted the help of Arthur even though she lost custody of her children and hadn't seen Acton since 1978, when the Democratic candidate was 12 and testified in court that her stepfather, Arthur's husband, had raped Acton. And he didn't express horror over the fact that Arthur fled the state with her husband to avoid legal liability and stayed married to him until his death in 2004 despite his alleged abuse of her daughter, only to be featured in an ad attacking Acton more than two decades later.
Instead, Vance reserved his "disgust" for Republicans who condemned the ad, which Ramaswamy's campaign is now planning to spend $4 million streaming ahead of Election Day.
While the ad has been called "the most disgusting, pathetic ad ever created in the history of political ads" by one observer and has resulted in calls for an end to Ramaswamy's political career, Vance shrugged off the content of the 60-second video by saying, "Politics is a tough business."
He called on his fellow Republicans, some of whom have denounced the ad, to put aside concerns about attacking Acton, whose allegations are backed up by court records—and to focus instead on the dangers posed by Democratic candidates like Acton who have called to expand healthcare access, lower costs for working Americans, and support workers' rights.
"My message to my fellow elected Republicans is if you actually believe in the things you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days," Vance told reporters in Cincinnati.
WOW -- Vance *defends* Ramaswamy's reprehensible ad 👇Q: Ramaswamy's campaign put out a controversial ad featuring his opponent's mother. Some Republicans are backing away from that. Do you think that ad was appropriate?JD VANCE: Well, I'll be honest with you. Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. My concern is who is gonna govern. I have to admit I'm a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans who are whining more about that ad than they are about what the Democrats want to do.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 21, 2026
The vice president added that "whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern" and said he was "disgusted" to see Republicans "who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America."
Vance's position on Ramaswamy's tactics—deployed as Acton was leading him by seven points in one poll by Marist College—brought to mind, for some observers, his comments in 2024 about the Trump campaign's spreading of racist, baseless lies about the Haitian population of Springfield, Ohio eating their neighbors' pets during the presidential race.
Vance told CNN at the time that he was willing “to create stories so that the... media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people."
"Vance's earlier Haitian pet-eating lie and his current embrace of Vivek's weaponization of child abuse are providing a pretty ugly picture of what the Vance 2028 presidential campaign is going to look like," said Jessica Reidl of the Brookings Institution. "Just venom, lies, and smears all the way down."
Republicans who have attempted to distance themselves from Ramaswamy's ad include US Sen. John Husted of Ohio and the state's secretary of state, Frank LaRose, both of whom said they would not have chosen to run such an advertisement. LaRose said his office was reviewing complaints about the video.
An aide for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) deleted a social media post sharing the video and apologized for amplifying it “after researching it, and the disturbing allegations.” Casey Putsch, who ran against Ramaswamy in the GOP primary, said he would cross party lines to "vote for Amy and end Vivek's political future in America" in light of the ad, while former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who sparred with Ramaswamy during the 2024 race, also denounced the video.
After Vance's press conference, former US Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said that while the ad had exposed Ramaswamy as "digusting, vile, and unfit, JD Vance arrives to show there’s someone even worse."
In addition to the press conference, Vance spoke about the ad and doubled down on attacking Acton at a rally in his home state on Wednesday.
"Now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because guess what, Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar," said Vance.
WOW -- Vance *defends* Ramaswamy's reprehensible ad 👇Q: Ramaswamy's campaign put out a controversial ad featuring his opponent's mother. Some Republicans are backing away from that. Do you think that ad was appropriate?
JD Vance: "Now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar" https://t.co/iWKrOKclmW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 21, 2026
He then said that Ohio voters "see through" Acton's "fraudulent activity" before egging on an audience member who suggested the Democratic candidate is an alcoholic.
"Somebody said alcohol," the vice president said with a grin. "You can say it sir, I can't."
Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist with the ACLU, said that with less than two weeks to go until Election Day, Vance's closing midterm argument amounts to "please help us smear a child rape victim to overcome the electoral hurdle of our failing president."
As families across the US struggle with rising prices at the gas pump, grocery store, and doctor's office—linked to Trump's war on Iran, tariff policy, and Republicans' healthcare cuts—the president's approval rating stands at 32%, according to a recent Reuters poll.
Ryan Grim of Drop Site News called Vance's attacks on Acton "truly despicable given JD’s own upbringing" by his mother, who struggled with substance use disorder, which he wrote about in the memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
"JD Vance doubling down on the claim that Amy Acton and her brother are lying about being abused as children. If he is so sure, then why did the state strip custody?" said Grim. "What if his mom was still an addict and did an ad calling JD a liar for his book? Would he be ok with that? Soulless behavior."
The vice president, said journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez, is giving voters a choice "between a party that downplays child sexual abuse and attempts to discredit the victims or the party that doesn’t do that."
"That is his closing pitch," said Gonzalez, "and I hope the only thing people remember him for."
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Ramaswamy Takes Full Credit for Most 'Disgusting, Pathetic Ad Ever Created in the History of Political Ads'
The Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate's campaign is spending $4 million to promote the ad featuring his Democratic opponent's estranged mother, less than two weeks before Election Day.
Oct 21, 2026
Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican Party's gubernatorial nominee in Ohio, confirmed on Wednesday that his campaign was behind a widely condemned attack ad featuring Democratic opponent Amy Acton's estranged biological mother, sparking fresh outrage less than two weeks before Election Day in the critical battleground state.
Ramaswamy went further than simply taking credit for the ad, whose origins were unclear when it first began circulating on social media earlier this week without mandatory disclosures—an apparent violation of federal law. Axios reported early Wednesday that his campaign is "doubling down on the message" with $4 million in spending to stream the minute-long spot statewide less than two weeks before Election Day.
Acton, a physician who is ahead of Ramaswamy in recent polling, accused Ramaswamy of exploiting her "deeply sick and unwell" mother "for his own political gain." In the 60-second spot—which one observer called "the most disgusting, pathetic ad ever created in the history of political ads"—Acton's mother accuses her daughter of lying about her past—a narrative that Acton forcefully rejected in a statement posted to Facebook on Tuesday.
"Between the ages of 10 and 12, I was sexually abused by her husband, while my birth mother did nothing to protect me," said Acton. "Eventually, I confided in my father and stepmother, and we were removed from that situation. My birth mother’s husband was arrested, charged with rape, and indicted by a grand jury. At 12 years old, I testified in court. I haven't seen my birth mother since that day in 1978. She and her husband fled the state and he was declared a fugitive."
At a town hall in Westerville, Vivek Ramaswamy addressed a controversial ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother. https://t.co/Eup71qC4BU https://t.co/isW2M7FzvZ
— NBC4 Columbus (@nbc4i) October 21, 2026
Acton's brother, Philip Stearns, called Ramaswamy's ad "a despicable low" that "reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core—a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants."
Even as Ramaswamy received backlash from across the political spectrum, his campaign manager boasted to Axios that the ad marked "a campaign-ending moment for Amy Acton."
Logan Phillips, an election forecaster and political reporter, offered a much different assessment.
"I think Ramaswamy just lost the race," Phillips wrote. "Amy Acton's mother stood by while her husband raped her at 12. They haven't talked since she lost custody in 1978. Millions of Ohioans are going to hear this story, and they will be offended that Vivek went this low."
Meghan Meehan-Draper, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said in a statement Tuesday that "Ramaswamy should be ashamed of himself for giving airtime to yet another person who was complicit in acts of horrific sexual abuse—this time against Dr. Acton herself."
"This is part of a disturbing pattern from Ramaswamy," said Meehan-Draper, "who has mocked Dr. Acton for being an abuse survivor and just last week released an ad featuring a convicted child sex offender.”
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'Pathetic Excuse for a Man': Ramaswamy Slammed Over Ad Featuring Acton’s Estranged Mother in Ohio
Acton's brother said the ad was a "despicable low," noting that their mother stood by their stepfather after he was charged with raping Acton at the age of 12.
Oct 20, 2026
With just two weeks left until Election Day, Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is drawing criticism from across the political spectrum over a vicious attack video featuring his Democratic opponent Amy Acton's estranged mother, whom she has accused of abandoning her after she was sexually abused as a child.
The 60-second video, which surfaced on social media Monday and was amplified by conservative accounts, features Donna Arthur, Acton’s biological mother, urging Ohioans to vote against Acton and accusing her of lying about experiencing homelessness and living in a tent during her childhood.
"I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent, it's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar," Arthur said. "She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She's lied her entire life."
After the ad went viral on social media, Acton's brother, Philip Stearns, accused Ramaswamy of sinking to "a despicable low." In a statement Tuesday, he noted that "after he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy's rapist until he died."
Stearns called the ad an "attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point."
It remains unclear who produced the ad, which contains no sponsorship disclosure indicating whether Ramaswamy's campaign or a supporting political action committee was behind it. Acton's campaign, however, has blamed her opponent.
Ramaswamy's political allies have previously attacked Acton over therapy she received following the abuse. Ramaswamy himself drew criticism in April after claiming that his opponent had no vision for Ohio "other than to complain about what someone else did to her."
“This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core,” Stearns said, describing him as “a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”
Though President Donald Trump won Ohio by double digits in 2024, several recent polls show Acton with a substantial lead over Ramaswamy, a staunch ally of the president.
In a statement to HuffPost, the Ramaswamy campaign did not take credit for the ad, but defended its substance.
"We don't know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke out about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor," said Connie Luck, a spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign.
She added: “Everyone who knows [Acton] best—her former boss, her former state colleagues, her fellow physicians, and now her own mother—are clearly warning Ohioans not to vote for her. Ohioans deserve to know that.”
Acton has spoken on the campaign trail about the hardships she experienced as a child and has made them central to her pledge to make life more affordable for struggling Ohio families.
"I know what it feels like to go hungry, to not have enough," Acton said during an interview in August. "My brother and I actually were in a tent in the middle of winter growing up, so these problems are real to me."
She spoke about these experiences long before she ran for governor. In a 2019 profile by The Youngstown Vindicator, Acton—then serving as the director of Ohio's health department under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine—recounted a childhood marked by poverty, neglect, and abuse.
By age 12, she said, she and her brother, Stearns, had lived in roughly 18 different homes. She said her stepfather had already faced molestation allegations when her mother married him—a claim confirmed by newspaper reports and court records from the time. She said her family was living in a tent at a campground outside Youngstown in the winter when her stepfather raped her.
After charges were filed, Acton and her brother went to live with their biological father and his relatives, who had been granted custody. She recalled trying to kiss her mother goodbye at the courthouse, only for her mother to turn her cheek away.
"That was the last time I ever saw her," Acton said. According to the profile, her mother and stepfather subsequently fled town while he was out of jail on bond.
The attack on Acton has drawn bipartisan outrage.
Ohio state Rep. Allison Russo (D-7), who is running for secretary of state, described the ad as "among the most vile political attacks I’ve ever seen."
"Millions of adults from all walks of life are estranged from a parent, often because of childhood abuse and trauma that are far too common in our society," she said. "Exploiting that deeply personal pain for political gain is cruel, shameful, and deserving of unequivocal condemnation."
US Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) agreed that it was “one of the most despicable things I’ve ever seen in politics.”
"He’s arguably the most unlikable person in the history of people… because of stuff like this," he said of Ramaswamy. "By the end of the day, Ohioans will learn what happened to Amy as a 12-year-old girl, how her mother lost custody of Amy as a result, and what a disgrace Vivek is for pulling this."
Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), who previously prosecuted child sexual assault cases, said that Arthur’s defense of her late husband despite her daughter’s assault allegation is something he has witnessed “too frequently.”
"A child victim discloses the abuse by a stepdad or mom’s boyfriend, and mom takes the abuser’s side because she can’t bear to think that she had exposed her own child to a monster," he said. "Mom is protecting mom—not the child."
He added that "Ramaswamy has embraced the Trumpian role of taking the side of the predator."
While right-wing influencers, including Donald Trump Jr., amplified the ad and treated it as a “bombshell” October surprise that could upend Acton’s campaign, some conservatives also expressed dismay.
GOP strategist Liz Mair called the ad "terrible" and said it is "going to remind people of that one family member who hates them for no rational reason at all and make them feel sympathetic towards Acton."
“In brief, it pushed me towards Acton, not away from her,” Mair continued. “And this is genuinely the only thing I’ve seen or read about Acton to make me think anything positive of her."
"It seems crazy to me [that] one would assume this would work and not backfire," said conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham. "An estranged mom from a rough childhood going straight to camera to trash her daughter as a trustworthy messenger?"
Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carney predicted bluntly that "This ad could sink Vivek."
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Who Benefits From Greg Levy's US Senate Run in Ohio?
The evidence strongly suggests a candidacy designed, whether intentionally or not, to shift significant voters from the only viable progressive candidate in this critical race: Sherrod Brown.
Oct 13, 2026
Despite it being full of sound and fury signifying something akin to pipe dreams, the political platform of Greg Levy is still the most progressive of all US Senate candidates in Ohio. That’s good, and that’s it.
All else strongly suggests a candidacy designed, whether intentionally or not, to shift significant voters from the only viable progressive candidate in this critical race: Sherrod Brown. The danger is that Levy may do to the 2026 Senate race in Ohio what Ralph Nader did to the 2000 Presidential race in Florida—snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory for progressive forces.
Polls show this Senate race to be highly competitive. One conducted in late September by the reputable Rasmussen Project gives Brown a slight 3-point lead over Husted, but it also reveals significant support for Levy ranging from 1% to 9% depending on the demographic. Within the 19-29 age group, Levy has an estimated 6% of the vote, and among voters without a high school diploma the support reaches 9%. His overall support currently stands at around 2%—within striking range to knock Brown out and keep the US Senate in MAGA control.
It does not get much uglier than this.
Much of Levy’s popularity, especially among the youth, stems from his pro-Palestine stance and his critique of Brown acceptance of AIPAC money. However, Levy’s campaign is also not without dubious donations. His very first recorded and largest single donation, $3500 given in early October 2025, came from Matthew Meyer, a Graduate Research Associate at Ohio State University. The monthly stipend for a GRA is $2.897. A much more troublesome campaign donation, the second largest single one, $1,041.96, came from Ada Rauschenbach, who is employed as a highly specialized communications engineer for iDirect Government, a major military contractor.
According to its corporate self-description, iDirect Government “provides mission-critical Military Satellite Communication solutions; anti-jamming capabilities and cryptographic technologies to the Department of Defense.” In January 2026, it was awarded a $151 billion contract for a sophisticated program (SHIELD) to support Trump’s wild “Golden Dome” defense system. iDirect Government also supplies an Israeli weapons manufacturer (GetSat based in Rehovot) with its advanced software used for “empowering mission success in dynamic and contested environments,” likely a reference to Gaza.
Why would anyone with his livelihood rooted in militarism donate significantly to a candidate who calls for a 90% cut to the Pentagon budget? The question is a rhetorical one, and gives credence to the proposition that MAGA militarists would love to have Levy cause Brown to be defeated.
Campaign donations are part of this nefarious strategy; deceit is another. Levy proudly identifies himself as a member of and organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)—on his campaign materials, but hardly anywhere else. On his FEC candidacy form he filed as an Independent, not a PSL member. However, according go an Ohio Secretary of State Directive, “An independent candidate must actually be unaffiliated from any political party, and the required claim of unaffiliation must be made in good faith for the candidate to be qualified to run as an independent candidate.” On the Ohio ballot, Levy is identified as an “other-party” candidate, the only one with that curious designation.
Nevertheless, in countless media reports and voter guides, Levy is identified as an Independent and no mention is made of his PSL membership. An article in a Suffolk University publication even calls him a “No Party” candidate, and The Times of Israel claims he is a “DSA-endorsed Senate candidate” who is running as an Independent.
One does not build a socialist movement by failing to be identified as a socialist in the media; but being labeled an Independent attracts a wider electorate, which is precisely what Levy needs to siphon off sufficient voters from Brown. Adding to the contention that Levy’s campaign was launched to target Brown is the timing of its filing. Brown filed for candidacy on August 18, 2025, and Levy subsequently did so within a month, on September 12.
However, another filing within 4 weeks of the midterm elections revealed a sinister GOP plot designed to help assure Levy successfully plays the spoiler role of a shill candidate. On October 5, a newly formed Republican PAC (Enough Promises Ohio) with ties to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, spent $195,519.98 to Seven Farms of South Carolina for printing and mailing services in support of Gregory Lee Levy, who is explicitly mentioned in the filing; two days later the same GOP outfit invested another $215,659.58 for similar services in opposition to Brown. Seven Farms uses the same address as a political vendor that has been paid by No Going Back, another super PAC linked to Trump.
The campaign mailers, which were sent to countless likely voters in Ohio, vigorously promote Levy over Brown with phrases like “Join the Revolution,” “Free Palestine” and, “Send a Worker to the Senate.” Such slogans have been extensively used on Levy’s campaign literature and signs.
It does not get much uglier than this. Having MAGA forces spend nearly $200,000 to actively promote a nonviable socialist candidate in order to defeat a viable progressive one tells you all you need to know about this crucial election: a vote for Levy is, in effect, a vote for the fascist MAGA candidate.
After this revelation of massive MAGA support for Levy’s campaign, there is really only one honorable option for a campaign that should never have started: withdrawal.
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'Not What I Did': GOP Senator Squirms When Asked Why He Keeps Voting for Trump's Gas Price-Hiking War
"In fact... Husted voted for the war FOURTEEN TIMES," said one critic.
Sep 30, 2026
An embattled incumbent Republican senator squirmed on Tuesday when confronted with his multiple votes supporting President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran, which has driven up gas prices across the US.
During a Wednesday interview with local news station WKRC, Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) was asked by reporter James Pilcher about his votes in favor of continuing the war, which the journalist noted has become "pretty unpopular."
"First of all, I didn't, that's not what that vote was, it's not what I did," Husted replied. "Here's the bottom line: These are the people that want higher gas prices right now: Iran, Russia, and the, and the Democrats in Congress. They don't want us to be successful there. They are literally... we are the party that has been, as Republicans, we've wanted more drilling. Like, we have, thank goodness, we have a great supply of domestic fuel right now, or prices would be even higher."
Q: You voted in favor of the war in Iran. It's proven to be pretty unpopular. What do you see as the offramp here?
HUSTED: First of all, I didn't- that's not what that vote was. That's not what I did. Here's the bottom line. These are the people that want higher gas prices right… pic.twitter.com/t4ZEmD0q2f
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 30, 2026
Husted—whom polls show is currently trailing his rival, former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)—then baselessly claimed that "Russia, Iran, and Senate Democrats seem to be aligned in seeing prices go up, I'm for prices going down."
The price of energy skyrocketed in the months since Trump attacked Iran without any congressional authorization in February, and the price of diesel fuel last week hit a record high of $6.53 per gallon.
Husted, meanwhile, has voted 14 times against war powers resolutions in the US Senate to compel Trump to end the conflict he started.
Critics of the Ohio Republican were quick to slam him for trying to evade responsibility for the fallout of the Iran War.
In a social media post, author James Surowiecki accused Husted of telling "a blatant lie" when he said he didn't vote to support the war.
"This month, he cast the deciding vote against a war powers resolution in the Senate directing Trump to end the war in Iran," Surowiecki wrote. "So yes, he voted in favor of continuing the war in Iran."
Husted's statement drew a similar rebuke from Kelsie Taggart, vice president of the Democratic advocacy group American Bridge.
"That is, in fact, what that vote was," Taggart wrote, "and Husted voted for the war FOURTEEN TIMES."
Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser who now advises the US Program at the International Crisis Group, argued that what Husted did was actually "even worse than voting for the Iran War."
"He voted to abnegate Congress' constitutional authority over the use of military force," Finucane explained, "and to allow Trump to wage war based on his own whims."
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'Blood Is On Their Hands': Haitian Student Dies In Apparent Suicide After Trump Ends Deportation Protections
"Because of the blatant cruelty and racism of Trump’s immigration policies, Pierre Damas Bel was denied the chance to fulfill his dreams."
Sep 01, 2026
Since President Donald Trump was running for office two years ago, Springfield, Ohio has been a central target of Trump and Vice President JD Vance's racist attacks and violent mass deportation operation, with the White House threatening the city's Haitian population with forced removal back to their unstable home country.
On Monday, Springfield became the site of a new tragedy that immigrant rights advocates said was directly caused by the Trump administration's xenophobic agenda, particularly its termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitian migrants, when 20-year-old Pierre Damas Bel was killed by a tractor trailer on Interstate 70—apparently dying by suicide after the loss of the protections pushed him into despair.
As The Washington Post reported Tuesday, college student and aspiring doctor Bel parked on the highway's shoulder Monday morning, got out of his car, and walked into westbound traffic. He was pronounced dead at the scene after being struck.
Ohio authorities are investigating, but Bel's family believes his death to be a suicide.
His family told the Post that Bel had become distressed in recent weeks after the US Supreme Court allowed Trump's termination of TPS for Haitians and Syrians.
Although he had a pending asylum case and a hearing scheduled for October, Bel was required to report to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of terminating TPS. Officers placed an electronic monitoring device on his ankle.
In late July, Bel wrote in an Instagram post: “I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone. Yet now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience.”
The Post reported that classmates bullied Bel over the bracelet, and he was unable to continue playing soccer as he had for years.
“He felt like he was treated like an animal,” his father, Pierres Ronal Bel, told the Post.
Last Friday, it appeared that Bel would not be able to continue in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) due to the Trump administration's monitoring of him as it pursued deportation. As the Post reported:
His JROTC class instructor handed students their uniforms, which resemble those of the US armed forces, but did not give one to Bel. His father said the college student concluded it was because of the device strapped around his ankle.
“He came home that day feeling very bad,” Pierres Ronal Bel said through a translator.
Bel "killed himself because of the Trump administration’s obsession with hurting Haitians and the humiliating shame of an ICE ankle monitor," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. "His blood is on their hands."
The White House had threatened to flood Springfield with ICE agents earlier this year when it first announced it was ending TPS, which for 16 years has provided Haitians with deportation protections. During the 2024 election, Springfield ended up in Trump and Vance's crosshairs as the two Republicans spread baseless, racist lies that Haitian community members there were eating their neighbors' pets.
TPS was initially granted to Haitians after the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 in Haiti—one of the worst disasters in modern history and one that the country has struggled to fully recover from, as it's also faced soaring violence and unrest following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The US State Department warns Americans not to travel to Haiti for any reason due to gang violence, kidnappings, and an ongoing humanitarian crisis there.
Despite that, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has gloated that "the T in TPS stands for TEMPORARY" and urged Haitians who have been legally living and working in the US for years to go back to "Home Sweet Haiti"—making such comments as at least 47 people were killed and 50 were kidnapped in a gang attack near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince late last month.
Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance told the Post that the Trump administration's policies "are what caused [Bel's] untimely death."
Bel came to the US in 2024 to reunite with his parents, who had left Haiti three years earlier. Reichlin-Melnick said that "he almost certainly flew here through the [Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans] parole program, entering legally after a background check and probably with his parents having sponsored him. He broke not a single law. Not one."
Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García (D-Ill.) said that "because of the blatant cruelty and racism of Trump’s immigration policies, Pierre Damas Bel was denied the chance to fulfill his dreams."
"This never should have happened," he said. "His blood, and the blood of all those who have died as a result of these policies, is in the hands of Trump and his top officials who have championed them."
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline—which offers 24/7, free, and confidential support—can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org.
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Leaked GOP Memo Warns Big Tech That AI Data Centers as Popular as 'Nuclear Waste'
"If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly, the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio."
Aug 19, 2026
A leaked memo written by the National Republican Senatorial Committee is warning Silicon Valley that its artificial intelligence data firms are becoming a massive political liability.
Axios reported on Wednesday that the GOP memo centers on the US Senate race in Ohio, where former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has made opposition to data centers central to his campaign against incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
The memo argues that if Brown's campaign is successful in a state that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2024, it will send a signal that support for data centers is a losing position across the US.
"If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice—and they will not go near the next one," the memo says. "This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle."
The memo goes on to argue that the tech industry needs to do more to show Americans the benefits they will get from data centers, which have been criticized for raising people's utility bills and generating large amounts of pollution.
"If voters' perceptions of data centers are not fixed quickly," the memo cautions, "the campaign against them will expand far beyond Ohio."
According to Axios, AI CEOs and GOP insiders have become unnerved by internal polls showing that "data centers are as popular as spent nuclear waste, and more broadly have become a proxy for feelings about AI."
A poll released in June by Echelon Insights found that only 27% of Americans said they would want an AI data center built in their nieghborhood, with 62% opposed. This made data centers even less popular than nuclear power plants, which 34% of Americans said they would welcome in their neighborhoods.
A separate Axios report published Wednesday described AI CEOs being in "full panic mode" over the backlash to data centers. What's more, reported Axios, tech insiders privately acknowledge that "they can't find a compelling message to shift opinion fast enough" ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
In fact, noted Axios, Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany has even come out against AI data center construction in his state, which the report described as "a striking crack" in President Donald Trump's "pro-AI coalition."
In a Wednesday social media post, pollster Adam Carlson predicted that any Big Tech public relations campaign to change Americans' minds about data centers was likely doomed.
"Charm offensives from tech firms... would’ve been more effective if they did them proactively instead of in response to (very predictable) local backlash," Carlson explained. "They got greedy. Now they’re trying to play catch-up and it's probably too late. No one to blame but themselves."
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