Vivek Ramaswamy is the second Indian-American to enter the Republican presidential primary race, after Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN.
Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday (February 22) announced that he will contest the 2024 presidential election in the United States. He is the second Indian-American to enter the Republican presidential primary race, after Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN, launched her presidential bid last week.
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“We’ve celebrated our “diversity” so much that we forgot all the ways we’re really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago. I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I’m running for President to revive them,” Ramaswamy said in a series of tweets. Apart from him and Haley, former President Donald Trump has also officially declared his candidature.
Ramaswamy’s early life
Born in August 1985 in Ohio’s Cincinnati, Ramaswamy is the son of Indian immigrants who moved to the US from Kerala. While his father worked at the General Electric Plant in Evendale, Ohio, his mother was a geriatric psychiatrist in Cincinnati.
Ramaswamy finished his undergraduate studies, majoring in Biology from Harvard College in 2007, and later went to Yale Law School to pursue a Doctor of Jurisprudence. According to his New Yorker profile, published in December 2022, he was the president of the Harvard Political Union while studying at the college and used to perform “Eminem covers and original free-market-themed rap songs as a kind of alter ego called Da Vek.”
The profile also said that Ramaswamy went to Kerala frequently while growing up to spend summers with his family.
His rise as a tech entrepreneur
After starting and then selling his technology company in his early 20s, joining a hedge fund based in New York and taking a standup-comedy class, Ramaswamy in 2014 established Roivant — his pharmaceutical venture that focuses on applying technology to drug development. The entrepreneur quickly gained popularity for his work in the field and in 2015 was featured on the cover of Fobes magazine, which called him “The 30-Year-Old CEO Conjuring Drug Companies from Thin Air.”
After stepping down as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Roivant Sciences in 2021, Ramaswamy co-founded Strive Asset Management, an Ohio-based asset management firm that was backed financially by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel and his law school friend, JD Vance, who is a venture capitalist. According to the New Yorker, Ramaswamy considers Strive as an “anti-woke” asset-management firm, which doesn’t ask the companies it invested in to “push political agendas.”
His political views
The New Yorker profile said that Ramaswamy in recent years has emerged as a “conservative pundit”, especially after his numerous appearances on Fox News. The 37-year-old entrepreneur is known for criticising the Black Lives Matter movement, “cultural totalitarianism” enforced by “liberal elites”, mask mandates and US-border protection. He also strongly advocates meritocracy in every field including immigration.
In an interview with The New York Times, he said that if elected as the president, his first action would be to “repeal Executive Order 11246, which has banned discrimination and required affirmative action for federal contractors since 1965.”
