Vivek Ramaswamy’s Hometown is Turning Against Him
October 29, 2026
Columbus, Ohio- With only five days until Election Day, billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy’s hometown is turning against him after his attack ad drew bipartisan backlash. Alumni of his high school and his own eighth grade teacher slammed Ramaswamy’s latest attack ad that “crosses all lines of basic human decency” and proves to Ohioans he is completely unfit to lead this state.
“People who have known Vivek Ramaswamy his entire life are turning against him and pointing out that he’s entirely unfit to be governor of Ohio,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ohioans have learned what Ramaswamy’s own community has known for a long time: he’s wrong for Ohio and he won’t do anything to help families struggling with rising costs.”
READ MORE about why Ramaswamy is wrong for Ohio from those who know him best:
Axios: Ramaswamy attack ad draws hometown criticism
- Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad against Amy Acton is drawing backlash in Cincinnati, where fellow St. Xavier High School graduates and a former teacher are calling for an apology.
- Why it matters: The hometown criticism adds to a bipartisan backlash in Ohio’s competitive governor’s race a week out from Election Day.
Cincinnati Enquirer: Ramaswamy’s Acton ad betrays the values St. X taught us | Opinion
- At a time when our young men should be learning to love, cherish and respect women, Ramaswamy’s ad wants to convince St. Xavier students that a woman who has suffered at the hands of the people she wanted to trust the most is morally acceptable. It is not and never will be.
- He should immediately issue a public apology, pull the ad and end these personal attacks. To all our young men and future alumni of St. Xavier High School, it is up to us to call out shameless and appalling attacks like these. We are better than Ramaswamy’s actions.
- I implore all my fellow members of the Long Blue Line not to vote for him.
Cincinnati Enquirer: Vivek Ramaswamy’s ‘disappointed’ ex-teacher protests at campaign event
- Outside a Vivek Ramaswamy campaign appearance in suburban Cincinnati, an unusual protester showed up: a former teacher of Ramaswamy who said he was “disappointed” in his one-time star pupil.
- Michael Pogue, who taught Ramaswamy when he was in eighth grade, sat with signs reading “You owe Dr. Acton a full retraction and sincere apology!” and “Shame on you, Vivek! I taught you better!” outside a campaign event at Izzy’s Deli on Oct. 24 in Monroe.
- Pogue said he wanted the Republican candidate for governor to retract his controversial ad attacking Democrat candidate Amy Acton. Ramaswamy’s ad has gained national attention and criticism for featuring his opponent’s estranged mother calling her a liar.
WVXU: Thousands of Ramaswamy’s fellow high school alums ask him to stop ad with Acton’s mother
- Thousands of alumni from the private Catholic high school that Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy graduated from have signed a petition related to his campaign ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent Amy Acton.
- The online petition has been signed by more than 3,100 grads of St. Xavier, an all-male private Jesuit high school in Cincinnati. It starts with this sentence in bold: “We, the undersigned alumni, family, and friends of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, are writing independently to express our deep moral disappointment in the campaign conduct of fellow alumnus Vivek Ramaswamy (’03) and to unequivocally condemn his recent political advertisement targeting Dr. Amy Acton.”
- The petition asks Ramaswamy to take down the ad, and requests that he issue a public apology “for weaponizing family trauma and domestic abuse in an electoral campaign” and also to “commit to debating policies and records rather than resorting to personal cruelty that violates the foundational standard of being a ‘Man for Others.'”
- “It’s not a political message. It is a message about human decency. It is not partisan,” said Brian Cahill, a 1983 graduate of St. Xavier and one of the organizers of the online petition.
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