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Polling indicates that Republican candidate for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy has lost support from voters in the weeks since he aired a controversial campaign ad featuring his opponent’s long-estranged mother.

A survey conducted by a Republican polling firm before the airing of the ad found that Democratic nominee Amy Acton and Ramaswamy were in a statistical tie, with Acton leading slightly by a margin of 47 percent to 45 percent. Polling from that firm after the airing of the ad shows Acton leading by 50 percent to Ramaswamy’s 42 percent — a 6-point swing in favor of the Democrat.

The ad was widely criticized, not just by Democrats but also by some Republicans, because it featured Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her daughter of having a “serious problem” and of being “a liar.” Acton and Arthur have not seen or spoken to one another since Acton was 12 years old, when she testified that Arthur’s then-husband had sexually assaulted her for years.

“Between the ages of 10 and 12, I was sexually abused by her husband, while my birth mother did nothing to protect me. … I’ve always known that she was........

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