Washington, Oct 21 (IANS) Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, received strong backing from Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday, rebuking fellow Republicans for “whining” about a Ramaswamy campaign advertisement featuring the mother of his Democratic rival Amy Acton.
Vance, speaking at a press conference in Cincinnati on the administration’s anti-fraud drive, said: “Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern.”
“I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country 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 said in reply to a question.
Some Republicans have distanced themselves from the advertisement.
Vance said the real question for voters was a different one. “Do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do,” he said.
He said, “The reason that John Husted should be a United States Senator is that he’s the right man for the job, and because Vivek should be the governor of Ohio.”
Vance pointed out that Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, had himself been the target of harsh attacks. “People have called Vivek Ramaswamy a murderer in some of the advertisements run against him,” he said.
“Politics is a tough business, and 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 said.
The Vice President, who represented Ohio in the US Senate, said he understood the state “instinctively” and would make the case for the Republican ticket at a rally later in the day.
At the rally at the Sharonville Convention Centre, with Ramaswamy and Husted seated in the front row, Vance said: “Vivek believes that the American dream should be within reach for every single Ohioan.”
He defended Ramaswamy for having “the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is,” according to a pool report.
Vance also targeted Democrat Sherrod Brown, who is running against Husted for the Senate. “He is a rubber stamp for Chuck Schumer and the far-left agenda,” he said.
A few hundred people attended the rally. A protester was escorted out during the event.
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 before endorsing Donald Trump, faces Acton in the November 3 election. A Ramaswamy win would make him one of the most prominent Indian-American elected officials in the country.
The Cincinnati press conference was called to announce an update from the administration’s fraud task force. Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “We have uncovered $42 million in fraud associated with the SNAP program,” with indictments “in 13 different districts” since September 1.
Vance described the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as one of the most important social service programs in the country and said the administration was “fighting and winning the war against fraud” in it.
–IANS
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