Vance tells Republicans to 'stop whining' about controversial Ohio attack ad

US Vice President JD Vance has told fellow Republicans to stop "whining" about a controversial attack ad in Ohio's governor race that features a Democratic candidate's estranged mother branding her a liar.

Campaigning in Ohio for Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor, Vance said he was "a little bit disgusted" by criticism of the ad from within his own party. In the spot, Donna Arthur accuses her daughter, Democratic candidate Amy Acton, of having "lied her entire life". It makes no mention that Acton's stepfather was once charged with raping her when she was a child.

The Ramaswamy campaign claimed credit for the ad after it appeared online on Monday evening without a payer disclosure, and the candidate has pledged $4m (about 2.9 million pounds) to keep it on air. The spot has drawn bipartisan criticism: former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley called Ramaswamy "a bad guy", while Ohio Senator John Husted said "I would not have run that ad".

Acton, the former head of the Ohio Department of Health, says she has not spoken to her mother since her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and charged in 1978; the family fled Ohio and he was never prosecuted. Her brother Philip Stearns called the ad a "despicable low" and appears in a counter-ad accusing Ramaswamy of contempt for Acton and for Ohio.

Vance told the BBC the ad was "not really my concern", adding that what matters is "who's going to govern the next generation". The Cook Political Report has moved the Ohio governor's race from "leans Republican" to "toss up".