American presidential politics has been irrevocably changed because of the election of Donald Trump, a complete outsider who had never held public office. Thanks to Trump leading the way, and because of the importance of social media in American politics, many outsider candidates have been able to bypass the standard filters required to seek public office. This phenomenon has occurred in both the Democrat and Republican primaries, although in 2020, the Democrats overlooked the talents of Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard in favour of a geriatric former vice president.
In the past few months, Vivek Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old Indian-American running for the GOP Presidential nomination, has risen to third place in some national opinion polls. It’s a meteoric rise for a relatively unknown tech millionaire running a largely self-funded campaign. He is the youngest of all the declared candidates, running on his outsider status and success in the tech industry, much like Andrew Yang in the 2020 election.
Ramaswamy’s campaign aims to revive the American economy and society through bold new ideas like reducing the size of the federal government, opposing China, increasing drilling and fracking and eliminating woke politics from all facets of American life. He’s also advocated for raising the voting age to 25, and the creation of a civics test that American citizens must pass. Combined with his talent for elocution and endless energy, these out-of-the-box ideas have energised factions of the GOP who may be ready to move on from Trump but not from a bold Trump-like leader who seeks to remake what will be left of the administrative state after a swift purge.
Ramaswamy projects confidence as if there’s no problem hard enough that his youth and optimism cannot solve. Like the overconfident corporate salesman in Die Hard who thinks he can make a deal with Hans Gruber, Ramaswamy believes he can solve the problems of geopolitics by sitting down with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and getting them to play ball. Ending the war in Ukraine, decoupling from China, eliminating the federal bureaucracy? All he needs is the power of the presidential pen. Where Reagan, Bush, and Trump failed, Ramaswamy will succeed.
The anti-Trump faction inside the GOP view Ramaswamy as a stalking horse for the Trump campaign. He agrees with Donald Trump on numerous policy questions, has promised to pardon Trump if he became president, and frequently attacks Trump’s rivals from the same positions that Trump would. The more savvy pro-Trump faction has pushed back on Vivek’s framing as an outsider moulded in Trump’s image. They point to Vivek’s past as a George Soros Open Society Fellow, the moderate political tone of his books and Vivek’s condemnation of Trump’s actions on January 6 as proof that he is a fraud or a plant by the globalists to chip away at Trump’s support. Still, most voters aren’t paying close attention to the candidates at the moment. Vivek will have plenty of opportunity to rebut these claims on the debate stage where he thrives.
Gore Vidal once said, “Never pass up a chance to have sex or appear on television.” Vivek has certainly proved that by going on any podcast, TV show, and YouTube live stream that he’s invited onto. Like Trump, he’s shown a willingness to engage in any debate on any topic that will get him in front of the news. Even his recent comments on 9/11 were Trumpian in their bluster. After flirting with 9/11 trutherism, Ramaswamy recalibrated his comments and stayed within the “government can’t be trusted” populist lane.
As Vivek is busy positioning himself as the fresh millennial alternative to the 77-year-old Donald Trump, it’s not clear that the GOP’s pro-Trump base actually wants an alternative to the former 45th president. Many have interpreted Vivek’s campaign as a real-life audition to be the running mate for Trump.
British politician Nigel Farage has singled out Vivek as someone who can help Donald Trump throw Joe Biden out of office. Farage can be forgiven for not understanding the American federal system of government, which is far and away from the parliamentary politics of the UK. In American presidential politics, it’s the governors who are often the kingmakers for the outsider candidates. Mike Pence helped Donald Trump shore up evangelical support in 2016 and gave his candidacy an imprimatur of executive competence.
Vivek doesn’t represent a constituency. He can’t point to any prior victories such as winning in a swing state that would present him as a better choice for running mate compared to another governor with a built-in vote bank. Even if they lose the primary, the slate of governors running for president this cycle will be a lot more attractive to the Trump campaign, should those candidates decide to make their peace with Trump.
Still, the most useful Vivek has been is to help change the conversation around the future of the GOP and its messaging on key issues. Rather than differentiate between Democrats and Republicans, Vivek separates the political divide between the everyday citizen vs the managerial class. The everyday citizen vs the cult of woke, ESG, race, gender and climate change. In that lane, Vivek Ramaswamy will continue to thrive. Even on religion, Vivek Ramaswamy may have done more to convince Evangelical voters that an assimilated brown-skinned Hindu can talk of American exceptionalism and revival better than most seasoned politicians.
With Vivek’s rise in the polls, Donald Trump is still the presumptive frontrunner with 50 per cent while Vivek and DeSantis fight it out over 12 per cent. It’s hard to see a path forward for Vivek Ramaswamy that has him winning the GOP Primary, though there is no doubt he will play a big role in the 2024 cycle and in the future of the GOP. Perhaps making it to 20 per cent by year’s end would mean Vivek would be a part of the conversation at Trump HQ. It’s too early to say.
Should a Republican win in 2024 though, Vivek would be well placed for a short stint in a cabinet or ambassadorial post (hopefully nowhere with nukes) before leaving to write his fourth book.
Anang Mittal (@anangbhai) is a public affairs professional living and working in Washington DC. He was previously an outreach manager at Google, and a staffer for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He is a first-generation immigrant from New Delhi, India. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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