Campaigns drag grieving families into midterm attack ads

The 2026 midterms have taken a deeply personal turn as campaigns use other people's family tragedies as political ammunition — sometimes over the objections of the families themselves.

Why it matters: Some attack ads feature photographs of murdered children and anguished 911 calls, forcing grieving families to relive their worst moments.

Georgia governor race: Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson used images of murdered 8-year-old Secoriea Turner and her mother's anguished 911 call to attack Democratic rival Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta's former mayor.

• Turner's family demanded the ads come down, accusing the campaign of exploiting their grief without permission. Jackson said he would keep airing them.

Ohio governor race: Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign is spending $4 million on an ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton.

• In the ad, Donna Arthur calls her daughter a liar and disputes her account of childhood homelessness.
• Acton says her late stepfather — who was married to her mother until his death — sexually abused her as a child, and she hasn't spoken to her mother in decades. Acton's brother corroborated her account, while court records and contemporary news reports support key details.
• President Trump urged Ramaswamy to keep running his attack on Acton, despite objections from some fellow Republicans.

Between the lines: Ramaswamy's campaign said the ad tested well with persuadable voters, even as critics warned it could backfire.

Ohio Senate race: A Republican attack ad against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown featured images of a couple and their 1-year-old son killed in a highway crash to blame Brown's immigration policies.

• The victims' family demanded its removal, saying nobody sought permission to use their relatives' images or tragedy.

North Carolina Senate race: A Republican super PAC featured a grieving father in an attack ad linking the murder of his 23-year-old son to former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's prison policies.

• The father said he felt deceived about the ad's purpose. The group disputes his account, while fact-checkers found no connection between the killer and Cooper's prisoner-release agreement.

Yes, but: Some survivors willingly share their trauma to challenge politicians' decisions.

• In Nebraska, Jody Snogren voluntarily appeared in an ad attacking Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts for his 2022 vote to pardon John Arias, who pleaded guilty to raping her.
• Snogren told The 19th she chose to tell her story to inform voters and had no regrets.
• Ricketts expressed sympathy for Snogren but defended the pardon, noting Arias had served his full sentence and the pardon came decades after the crime.