Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine may have refused to campaign alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, but some furious Ohioans are making it clear they are not giving him credit for keeping his distance while his endorsement remains firmly in place.
DeWine has condemned a controversial Ramaswamy campaign advertisement featuring Democratic candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother, demanded that it be removed and publicly defended Acton’s honesty. As reported by Tiffin Ohio, he has now also confirmed he will not campaign with the Republican nominee seeking to replace him.
But DeWine still refuses to withdraw his endorsement. That landed badly in an r/Ohio discussion of the story, where critics argued that refusing to share a campaign stage means little while DeWine continues telling voters, through his endorsement, that Ramaswamy should become governor.
One of the most-upvoted responses cut straight through the governor’s balancing act: “Not good enough. If he doesn’t pull his endorsement then he supports Ramaswamy. Period.”
Another commenter called DeWine “spineless and complicit until he pulls formal support,” while another accused him of trying to claim the moral high ground without taking the one action that would give his criticism real political weight.
Critics say DeWine’s words mean nothing without action
The anger follows DeWine’s unusually sharp criticism of Ramaswamy’s advertisement, which features Acton’s estranged biological mother questioning her credibility despite a documented family history involving abuse and Acton losing contact with her mother as a child. DeWine called the ad “deeply, deeply, deeply troubling” and said it should come down.
He also defended Acton, his former health director, saying his experience working closely with her was that she told the truth.
Yet DeWine insists his endorsement of the Republican ticket stands. For critics in the Ohio thread, that contradiction is the entire story. Several portrayed the episode as part of a much longer pattern of DeWine saying the respectable thing while stopping short of the action they believe the moment demands. One commenter described him as “spineless as always,” while another specifically accused him of failing to stand up strongly enough when Acton faced threats during the COVID era.
A Reddit thread is hardly a scientific sample of Ohio voters, and the discussion clearly skews hostile toward Republicans. But the criticism exposes the political weakness in DeWine’s position.
He wants distance from Ramaswamy’s conduct without withdrawing support for Ramaswamy himself. For his online critics, those two positions can no longer coexist. With Election Day approaching, they are demanding something stronger than condemnation. They want DeWine to prove he means it.
