Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy trails in two new Ohio polls as voters fault attack ad

Washington: Indian American Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is trailing Democrat Amy Acton in two new polls of Ohio’s governor’s race, with both surveys suggesting his campaign’s ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother has failed to move voters his way.

A Suffolk University/USA TODAY Network Ohio poll released on Wednesday put Acton at 48 per cent and Ramaswamy at 44 per cent, with Libertarian Don Kissick at 4 per cent and 3 per cent undecided. In September, the same poll had Acton ahead 50 per cent to 41 per cent.

Seventy-two per cent of likely voters said they had seen or heard about the ad, but fewer than 1 per cent said it shifted them from Acton to Ramaswamy, according to Suffolk. Two per cent of those aware of the ad said they had backed Ramaswamy before it aired and now support Acton.

Half of likely voters, 50 per cent, said Ramaswamy had run the more negative campaign, compared with 15 per cent who said that of Acton. Among voters who had seen the ad, that gap widened to 59 per cent to 13 per cent.

In Portage County, which Suffolk tracks as a bellwether, the two candidates were tied at 47 per cent.

A second, private poll commissioned by an unnamed Republican group and obtained by Axios showed a wider gap. The internal survey of 800 likely voters, conducted October 23-26, had Acton at 50 per cent and Ramaswamy at 42 per cent, up from a two-point Acton lead, 47 to 45, in the same poll earlier this month. Its margin of error was 3.46 percentage points.

The ad “is having a significant effect on the gubernatorial race,” a memo attached to the internal poll said, according to Axios. Eighty-six per cent of respondents had seen, read or heard something about it, and by a 2-to-1 ratio those familiar with it said it made them more likely to vote for Acton.

Axios reported that the campaign had committed $4 million to air the ad statewide. “The candidate is the one pushing for it,” a source close to the campaign told Axios. A Ramaswamy campaign representative declined to comment to Axios.

Ramaswamy has defended the ad, arguing that Acton has misrepresented her past.

On the campaign trail, he has turned to pocketbook issues. On Thursday he announced what he called a Day 1 executive order on property taxes. “This morning I announced my Day 1 Executive Order to investigate localities where property taxes have doubled since the pandemic, to give the public transparency that they deserve,” he posted on X.

He also attacked Acton as “the candidate who bans recordings at her events & refuses to debate”.

The FiftyPlusOne polling average on Thursday showed Acton at 48.2 per cent and Ramaswamy at 45.2 per cent.

Ramaswamy, the son of immigrants from Kerala, would be Ohio’s first Indian American governor if elected on November 3.

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