MILWAUKEE — A wealthy millennial entrepreneur who has never run for political office, Vivek Ramaswamy was the target of a barrage of attacks during Wednesday’s first debate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. It was an outsized amount of attention and vitriol from veteran Republican elected officials to devote to a political novice who is an unknown to most voters.
The politicians’ antipathy — frequently palpable during the raucous faceoff in Milwaukee — follows Ramaswamy‘s rising support in polls of Republican voters. In a Real Clear Politics average of surveys, Ramaswamy comes in third —– behind former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — and ahead of a former vice president, former and current governors, a current senator and others. His cocksure attitude also clearly drove their ire at Wednesday night’s debate.
Candidates largely tried to ignore Trump. Instead, it was the campaign’s political newcomer, Vivek Ramaswamy, who quickly became the center of attention.
The 38-year-old Ohio native is an Ivy League graduate who became a finance, pharmaceutical and biotech entrepreneur worth more than $950 million as of this month, according to Forbes.
Ramaswamy’s corporate work already had captivated the business press. But as he increasingly criticized the social and ethical practices of companies — notably the embrace of liberal policies on the environment, social issues and corporate governance — and what he argues is virtue signaling on issues such as racial justice, Ramaswamy became a star on Fox News and elsewhere in the conservative media. His first book, “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,†became a New York Times bestseller.
Though he had no formal political experience, Ramaswamy was well acquainted with people who did. He went to Yale Law School with J.D. Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy†author who is now a senator representing Ohio. The venture capital firm of billionaire Peter Thiel, who was a major supporter of Trump, backed an investment firm Ramaswamy founded.
Here are five takeaways from Fox News’ Republican presidential primary debate Wednesday night, which was not attended by front-runner Donald Trump.
As a student at Harvard University, Ramaswamy had a libertarian streak. He has since become a prominent conservative media star.
With a broad smile and glib manner, Ramaswamy has called for revolution in Washington, not reform, and glosses over his spotty voting record — he has voted in only two presidential elections — as he calls for people under the age of 25 to be required to pass a citizenship test, join the military or become a first responder to be eligible to cast a ballot.
Ramaswamy is an ardent supporter of Trump. If elected, Ramaswamy has vowed to pardon Trump, who has been charged with federal or state felonies in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia.
His disdain for traditional GOP policy and his Republican rivals was a major theme of the debate, most tangibly in his sparring with former Vice President Mike Pence. (Though the pair did shake hands immediately following the debate.)
Ramaswamy’s foreign policy views, notably about cutting U.S. aid to Israel as well as Ukraine — and allowing Russia to keep the territory it now holds — led to some of the debate’s most heated moments.
The question was simple: Raise your hand if you believe human behavior is causing climate change. The answer, for GOP presidential hopefuls, less so.
Ramaswamy’s age, political inexperience and foreign policy beliefs that buck traditional GOP orthodoxy about the United States’ role as leader of the free world all drew attacks during Wednesday’s debate. Rival candidates accused him of being either naive about the dangers posed by Russia and China or shamelessly exploiting an increasingly isolationist bent in the GOP to advance his political standing.
DeSantis had been widely expected to tangle with Ramaswamy, but he left the attacks to other Republicans on the debate stage who are mired in the single digits in the polls. Some of the harshest criticism came from Pence, whose frustration was visible as he slammed Ramaswamy’s comment that a president should focus on the U.S.-Mexico border and issues at home instead of intervening in Ukraine and abroad.
Pence said the United States is fully capable of doing both.
“Let me explain it to you, Vivek,†Pence said. “I’ll go slower this time.â€
“Now is not the time for on-the job training,†he added. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie.â€
Former Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Nikki Haley of South Carolina also weighed in.
“I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT standing up here,†Christie said after Ramaswamy attacked the other GOP candidates as “super PAC puppets†who were “bought and paid for.â€
After a testy debate over the United States’ role overseas, Haley looked at Ramaswamy and declared, “You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows.â€
His supporters, some dressed as American Revolution-era patriots and playing fifes, were thrilled by Ramaswamy’s turn in the spotlight Wednesday night. But in many ways, Ramaswamy is a reminder of Democratic entrepreneur Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential bid. The political neophyte attracted attention, notably from nontraditional voters in the summer leading up to the primary. He dropped out weeks after voters started casting ballots.
2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang is little known but loved by his “Yang Gang.†He has qualified for the Democratic debates while some lawmakers did not.
That said, political pundits largely expected Trump to flame out in 2016.
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