The Leader
Opinion

[OPINION] The Race to 2024: Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Vivek Ramaswamy is now polling second in the Republican Presidential primary only behind Donald Trump, and his run has come as a surprise to many.

Vivek is the only candidate running for the party nominee without having any prior experience in elective office. He also would be the 2nd person ever if elected to have held no prior elected office (the first being Donald Trump). 

Vivek Ramaswamy was born in 1985 to Hindu Indian immigrants in Cincinnati Ohio, and later ended up attending Harvard for his bachelors degree and Yale Law School for his Juris Doctor.

Vivek Ramaswamy.
Photo via Ramaswamy’s X.

Vivek is a strong speaker and great debater, as he was on the Harvard and Yale debate teams. After graduation, Vivek founded biotech and financial firms—most notably Novient sciences—and has a net worth of 950 billion.

Vivek’s campaign has been a total copycat of Trump’s 2016 run, railing against the establishment class of Washington D.C. and the “Woke Bureaucrats” of the federal government. Along with this, he is also denouncing the anti-racist rhetoric and affirmative action that probably got him a spot in the most prestigious halls of Harvard and Yale Law. 

If elected, Vivek has said he would pardon Trump, abolish the Environmental Protection Agency (the main agency that is helping us fix climate change) and stop funding Ukraine, leaving the country of freedom fighters in the hands of Putin’s Dictatorship. Vivek is not the disease, but rather a symptom of Trump’s playbook that has shaped the Republican party since 2016. 

Vivek Ramaswamy would be the first candidate to be elected from the millennial generation, and the first Indian American president. His pitch that his generation is losing its moral character because of a loss of religion and sense of purpose which is resonating with the same voters who supported Trump in 2020.

However, America has actually been growing more secular since the 60s, and studies have shown that areligious people can be just as moral, if not more moral than their religious counterparts as shown through acceptance of members of the LGBTQ+ community.

The studies also show that people not connected with a religion are more likely to vote for social welfare spending to uplift the lower end of society. 

While I disagree with his run and vision for America, Vivek Ramaswamy’s positions on Race Relations, Ukraine, and the shrinking of the federal government aligns with the playbook for the  2024 Republican party. Behind as it is, it tries to execute its goals in state legislatures instead of in Congress.

Vivek has positioned himself to be Trump’s number two pick, or a viable first choice if Trump becomes convicted or can no longer run because of age. Vivek has the chance to realign the country with the “anti woke” vs the “woke”, and the battle of free markets vs regulation of climate change, healthcare, and the cost of college.

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