By Jack O’Toole, Statehouse bureau | Again disproving the long-outdated political cliché that all politics is local, two of South Carolina’s best-known Republican women went out of their way this week to denounce a GOP gubernatorial campaign ad that’s running several hundred miles away — in Ohio.
And neither minced any words in the process.
“This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season,” retiring 1st District Congresswoman Nancy Mace said of the ad by Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in a CNN appearance. “I just can’t believe that this is what passes for decency in this election.”
Meanwhile, former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley was even more caustic, blasting not just the ad, but the candidate behind it.
“He’s a bad guy,” Haley wrote of Ramaswamy on X. “It’s a shame he continues to get away with it.”
The ad, which was backed by both President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance in public comments this week, features the estranged mother of Democratic candidate Amy Acton denouncing her daughter as a “liar.”
The problem? Acton’s mother lost custody of her children in 1978 – yes, 48 years ago – after her husband was arrested for raping the then-12-year-old Acton. And the mother then stayed married to him when he fled the state to avoid prosecution.
“I praise Nikki Haley for speaking out,” Mace said. “I praise other Republicans for speaking out. This is not who we are.”
Mace, whose political career is marked by battles over sexual predators, added she believes that Republicans like Vance who defend the ad now will pay a price in the future.
“This guy was arrested and charged with child rape,” Mace said. “And the idea that the vice president would go to the mattresses to defend this ad might have cost J.D. Vance the presidency.”
Ramaswamy’s campaign has said it’s spending $4 million to promote the ad, which Trump called “so good” in an Oct. 22 social media post.
Acton criticized the ad: “I feel like it was an exploitative thing to do. My mother is not well,” she told CBS station WBNS. “So, I think it’s despicable.”
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