New polls in Florida, South Carolina and Minnesota illuminate the head winds that Republicans are facing.

Republican attacks on the candidate for governor are contradictory and hinge on a warped understanding of sexual abuse

I’ve heard people say that the Ramaswamy team must have been scared.

Last week, the campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy, the tech billionaire and onetime Republican presidential candidate who is currently the Republican nominee to be the governor of Ohio, ran an ad featuring the long-estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, the physician and former public health official Amy Acton.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

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© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The fallout from Vivek Ramaswamy’s brutal spot targeting his Democratic rival in the Ohio governor’s race showed that even in the Trump era, a political attack can be seen as going too far.

© Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The 44th president sharply criticized Mr. Trump, who hit back later in the day. Mr. Obama also assailed Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio.

© Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Georgia’s Rick Jackson has spearheaded a court battle over a failed ‘anti-woke’ bank that also counted Ohio’s Vivek Ramaswamy as a major investor.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Trump got behind a much-criticized spot in the Ohio governor’s race.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Republican Mike DeWine said ad featuring estranged mother of Democrat Amy Acton was ‘wrong’

Donald Trump issued a swift rebuke against Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, who on Thursday said gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was “wrong” to release an ad critical of his Democratic rival Amy Acton that featured her estranged mother.

DeWine had implored Ramaswamy to take the ad down, but hours later, Trump urged Ramaswamy to keep airing it and accused the Republican governor of disloyalty.

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© Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP

© Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP

© Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP

The ad featuring the estranged mother of Vivek Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, has been widely criticized, though President Trump strongly defended it.

© Allison Robbert/Associated Press

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• Trump attacks Ohio governor over call for Ramaswamy to drop ‘deeply troubling’ ad

Reporting from Anchorage, Alaska

Mary Peltola’s campaign to represent Alaska in the US Senate has taken her to parts of the massive state’s interior that are inaccessible by road and on the frontlines of the cost-of-living crisis she hopes will make her the first Democrat to win the seat in nearly two decades.

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© Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP

© Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP

© Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP

JD Vance, the vice-president, criticized Republicans who have spoken out against a controversial campaign ad from Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The ad features the mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, calling her daughter a liar. In a Tuesday statement, Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, said his sister was estranged from her mother, who had married a man that sexually abused Acton when she was 12. He said his mother, Donna Arthur, remained in the marriage after her husband was arrested and her children were taken away from her

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© Photograph: Reuters

© Photograph: Reuters

© Photograph: Reuters

The vice president backed an advertisement featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s mother, who has been estranged from Dr. Acton since her stepfather was charged with child rape.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Amy Acton’s brother calls campaigning on his sister’s sexual abuse from their mother’s husband ‘a despicable low’

The family of Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, is criticizing her Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy for using Acton’s estranged mother in a recently released campaign ad.

In the ad, which has circulated among conservatives on social media, her mother, Donna Arthur, said: “She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life.”

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© Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

© Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

© Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

A Republican ad features Amy Acton’s estranged mother calling her daughter a liar. The two have not spoken since Dr. Acton’s mother backed her husband after his arrest on rape charges.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

The incidents, the first of which was reported on Thursday, came as election officials have reported a growing number of threats directed at them.

© Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times

Statehouses make health-care policy, guide education, and may redraw congressional districts ahead of 2028. With the stakes high, more than 6,100 legislators will be elected Nov. 3.

© Ashley Wu/The New York Times

The president rallied in Youngstown for Senator Jon Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are in competitive contests against Democratic opponents.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times