Washington | Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire Indian-American entrepreneur-turned-politician, suspended his 2024 presidential campaign following his poor showing in Monday's Iowa caucuses and backed its winner Donald Trump as the former US president sought to reclaim the White House in November.
"I will stick to the truth tonight. The first hard truth and this was hard for me, I gotta admit this, but we’ve looked at it every which way. And I think it is true that we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight,” Ramaswamy told his disappointed supporters in Des Moines, Iowa.
At 38, Ramaswamy was the youngest candidate running for the 2024 Republican Party's presidential nomination. The biotech entrepreneur was a distant fourth with 7.7 per cent of the votes polled on Monday.
The Iowa caucus formally kicked off the 2024 race to the White House. Former president Trump won the state with 51 per cent of the votes, consolidating his place to bag the party's nomination for the November presidential elections to challenge incumbent Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in second with 21.2 per cent of the votes polled, as against 51 per cent by Trump. Indian-American former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley came a close third with 19.1 per cent of the votes polled.
With wife Apporva by his side, Ramaswamy told his supporters in Iowa that he called Trump to congratulate him on his caucus victory and throw his hat behind him.
“As I’ve said since the beginning, there are two America First candidates in this race. And earlier tonight I called Donald Trump to tell him that I — congratulate him on his victory, and now going forward, you will have my full endorsement for the presidency,” Ramaswamy said. One of his supporters was heard saying: “Don’t Do It.”
Ramaswamy, who entered the race in February last year with virtually zero name recognition, outlasted several big-name Republicans including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence, Fox News noted.
He caught the attention in conservative circles with the release of his 2021 book "Woke, Inc.," which put a spotlight on how identity politics and social justice movements have plagued corporations.
A big focus of his campaign was restoring America's identity and his call to demolish the bureaucratic state by dramatically cutting the size of the federal government.
The report also pointed out that Ramaswamy has been arguing that the Republicans needed to elect a candidate with "fresh legs" in an attempt to draw contrast between himself and 77-year-old Trump, who he had regularly declared the "greatest president" of his lifetime.
The campaign now moves to New Hampshire where the primary is scheduled for January 23. Ramaswamy is scheduled to campaign along with Trump in this State.
Ramaswamy, who is Hindu and whose parents migrated to the United States from Kerala and worked at a General Electric plant in Ohio, was the second Indian-American to enter the Republican Party's presidential primary after Nikki Haley.
He was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biology before earning a law degree from Yale University.
Ramaswamy founded Roivant Sciences in 2014 and led the largest biotech IPOs of 2015 and 2016, eventually culminating in successful clinical trials in multiple disease areas that led to FDA-approved products, according to his biography.
He has founded other successful healthcare and technology companies, and in 2022, he launched Strive Asset Management, a new firm focused on restoring the voices of everyday citizens in the American economy by leading companies to focus on excellence over politics.
