He's a businessman who insults his fellow Republicans while accusing Democrats of being racist when they talk about racism. He doesn't think it should be a goal to defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin and wants to instead cut a deal with the leader who has waged a bloody and brutal 18-month invasion of neighboring Ukraine. And he thinks Donald Trump was this century's greatest president.
It sounds like Trump, but it's actually the man who would like to oust the former president from his runaway lead in Republican 2024 primary polls: Vivek Ramaswamy, whose bombastic performance in last week's GOP primary debate has brought him national attention and, at least for the moment, a boost in popularity.
Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old wealthy tech entrepreneur with no political experience, lent his own campaign more than $15 million and engineered a fundraising scheme to pay a 10% commission to grassroots fundraisers. Earlier this summer, he was in the low single digits in presidential primary polls.
But after last week's debate – during which he claimed to be the only candidate on stage who was not "bought and paid for” or a "super PAC puppet," the one time also-ran has been having his day in the campaign sun.
He raised $450,000 in the hours after the debate and was the most-Googled individual name both during and in the hours after Wednesday night's face-off in Milwaukee.
An Ipsos poll of debate-watchers found that 26% thought Ramaswamy did the best job in the debate, second only to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, given the win by 29% of debate-watchers. His polling numbers have finally reached double digits among Republican voters who say they back Ramaswamy.
"Prior to the debate, I sort of had the feeling that he was starting to get his moment," says Tim Hagle, a University of Iowa political science professor and longtime observer of the first-in-the-nation caucuses in the Hawkeye State.
"People really didn't know that much about him" until the period leading up to the debate and during the event itself, Hagle adds. "This is a chance for people to take another look [and ask], 'Is this guy real?' I'm not so sure it's going to last, though," Hagle cautions.
Ramaswamy managed to get the second-greatest amount of time speaking at the debate, after former Vice President Mike Pence – largely by delivering zingers to his more established opponents and making provocative comments that were guaranteed to get a response (and earn him a response to the response).
The approach, by design or not, led the other candidates to accuse Ramaswamy of being a "rookie" (Pence), an "amateur" who "sounds like Chat GPT (former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie) and of having "no foreign policy experience – and it shows" (former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley). That made it look like Ramaswamy was the candidate to knock down, paradoxically elevating him in the crowded contest for the GOP presidential nomination.
The attention, however, has also exposed some missteps and much-derided remarks by Ramaswamy on the campaign trail and on national television.
At a town hall in Pella, Iowa, on Friday, Ramaswamy downplayed the threat – or even the existence – of white supremacists, saying he had never met one.
"Maybe I'll meet a unicorn sooner. And maybe those exist, too," he added.
Asked about those remarks on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday after a white shooter killed three Black people at a Jacksonville, Florida, store, Ramaswamy again downplayed racism as a factor, saying "the last burning embers" of racism would be ignited further if he addressed the racial aspect of the shooting. Florida police said the killings were done by a man who detailed his bigotry and hatred of Black people in manifestos he wrote.
Ramaswamy bemoaned the "racialized culture" in America, which he said was promoted by the media, the establishment and universities.
"Whenever I hear Mr. Ramaswamy talk about this issue, he's not really looking at real life in America," primary foe and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who prosecuted white supremacists when he was a federal attorney, told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Ramaswamy has also called for the voting age to be raised to 25, saying he would make an exception for young people who served in the military or as first responders, or who passed a test on American civics.
On Sunday, Ramaswamy indicated he might have some gaps in his own civics education. Asked on "Meet the Press" if Pence had done the right thing on Jan. 6, 2021, by certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 election win, Ramaswamy said Pence missed a "historic opportunity."
Instead, Ramaswamy said, he would have certified the election on the condition that he used his role as president of the Senate to lead passage of a national law requiring same-day voting, paper ballots and a government-issued identification. After Trump signed that legislation, on Jan. 7 he would have declared a "re-election campaign pursuant to a free and fair election."
In fact, elections are run by the states, each of which has its own rules, approved by the state legislatures and governors, for when and how people can vote.
Meanwhile, Pence's campaign sent reporters a lengthy email Monday detailing all the shifting views Ramaswamy has had on the Jan. 6 insurrection – from calling it "a dark day for democracy" in his 2022 book, "Nation of Victims," wherein "the loser of the last election refused to concede the race."
Earlier this summer, Ramaswamy said he would pardon Trump as well as all "peaceful Jan. 6 protesters." In July, Ramaswamy sounded more sympathetic to the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, saying, "You tell people they cannot scream. That's when they tear things down."
Like all members of the GOP field not named Trump, Ramaswamy is running to be the first choice of Republican primary voters, should the former president – who was told Monday one of the federal cases against him would begin March 4, the day before Super Tuesday – leave the race.
Ramaswamy – who already held more events in Iowa than any other candidates on the GOP debate stage, according to tracking by The Des Moines Register – has been barnstorming the state since then.
As the candidate most defensive of Trump at the debate, Ramaswamy might also be auditioning to be Trump's running mate, Hagle notes. And Trump, who skipped the debate, seems to be listening.
"This answer gave Vivek Ramaswamy a big WIN in the debate because of a thing called TRUTH. Thank you Vivek!" Trump wrote on his social media site Thursday morning, accompanying the plaudit with a video clip of Ramaswamy calling Trump "the best president of the 21st century."
