Trump Defends Ramaswamy's Ohio Ad During Iowa Rally Speech

Donald Trump told a crowd at an Iowa rally on Oct. 22 that he personally encouraged Ohio Senate candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to keep running a campaign ad that Republican officials in two states have asked him to pull, according to the Guardian's live coverage of the rally. "Vivek should keep it up," Trump told the crowd, adding of his advice to the candidate, "You've got to ride with it," the Guardian reported.

The remarks came hours after Trump attacked the Ohio governor for calling the ad "deeply troubling" and pushing Ramaswamy to drop it, per the live blog. Trump also said "the press has ganged up on" the woman featured in the spot.

What is in the Ohio ad that drew Republican criticism?

The ad at the center of the dispute features the estranged mother of Ohio Gov. Amy Acton, who stayed with a husband charged with raping her daughter, according to the Guardian's reporting. The spot has been condemned by Republicans beyond Ohio's borders, including Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, who denounced it even as Trump traveled to campaign on her behalf, the live blog noted.

Trump has not disavowed the ad. Instead, he used the Iowa stage to defend both the spot and Ramaswamy's decision to keep airing it, framing the backlash as unfair media treatment of the woman shown in the commercial, per the Guardian.

How are other Republicans reacting to campaign ads this cycle?

The Ohio spot is not the only ad dividing the party. In Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins called for the removal of a radio ad attacking Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson as a "creep," the Guardian reported — a separate controversy playing out in a different race on the same campaign calendar.

Taken together, the two episodes show Republican officials publicly breaking with campaign material in more than one closely watched Senate contest in the same week, even as the party's standard-bearer defends similar tactics on the trail.

What numbers define the midterm landscape right now?

• 37 points: The lead Democrats hold over Republicans among likely young voters, according to a new poll cited in the Guardian's live coverage.
• 9 states: The number of states where a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt a noncitizen voting investigation, per the live blog.
• Nearly two decades: How long it has been since a Democrat won Alaska's Senate seat — the race Mary Peltola is contesting as she campaigns in parts of the state inaccessible by road, according to the Guardian's reporting from Anchorage.

Those figures sit alongside a Supreme Court ruling, also reported in the live blog, that student IDs will not be accepted at New Hampshire polls — another flashpoint in a midterm cycle already marked by disputes over ad content, voter eligibility rules, and investigations into election administration.

What else happened at the Iowa rally?

Trump opened the event with praise for his own record before pivoting to Rep. Ilhan Omar, raising conspiracy theories about her that prompted chants of "Lock her up!" from the crowd, the Guardian reported. He also described a cognitive test by reciting a math problem he said he had solved, though he did not state the answer on stage, according to the live blog.

Asked about accountability if Republicans lose the midterms, Trump told the crowd, "I am, really, on the ballot," without offering to resign in that scenario, the Guardian reported.

What is a noncitizen voting investigation, and why does it matter here?

A federal judge's order to halt such an investigation in nine states, as reported by the Guardian, means a Justice Department inquiry into noncitizen voter registration was paused by court action rather than ended through findings. Separately, the live blog reported that the department is investigating Corey Lewandowski over his role as an adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and that the State Department asked career officials up for promotion about their voting history — two threads the Guardian's reporters flagged as part of the same day's coverage.

Key terms in this story

• Live blog: A continuously updated news post tracking an unfolding event in real time, used here by the Guardian to cover the rally and related midterm developments.
• Noncitizen voting investigation: A federal inquiry into whether people who are not U.S. citizens registered to vote, now paused in nine states by court order, per the Guardian.
• Midterm elections: U.S. congressional and gubernatorial races held between presidential elections, the subject of the Senate contests in Ohio, Maine, Iowa, and Alaska referenced in this story.

The Guardian's live blog has closed for the day; readers can follow continuing coverage through the originating story.