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Last Updated on: 18th June 2024, 09:30 am
38-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and frequent political commentator, is the surprise candidate of the GOP presidential candidates for 2024.
With a campaign labeled “America First 2.0,” Ramaswamy’s campaign revolves around the notion that the policies of former President Donald Trump fell short of their potential during his initial term.
His ability to debate respectfully and with a smile on his face has won him many supporters within the relatively short duration of his political involvement on the national stage.
Here are some little-known facts about Ramaswamy:
1. Rooted in Tradition and Ambition
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ramaswamy’s parents are Hindu Tamil immigrants.
His father, V. Ganapathy Ramaswamy, holds a degree from the National Institute of Technology Calicut and pursued a career as an engineer and patent attorney at General Electric.
His mother, Geetha Ramaswamy, graduated from the Mysore Medical College & Research Institute and worked as a geriatric psychiatrist.
According to The Sun, Ramaswamy and his younger brother always shared an interest in Indian culture.
During his childhood, he spent many summer vacations in India alongside his parents, visiting his family’s ancestral home in the town of Vadakkencherry.
Ramaswamy attributes part of his meteoric rise to his father’s advice and encouragement. “If you’re going to stand out, then you might as well be outstanding,” he says his father once told him.
Ramaswamy seems to have made good on that.
2. Marriage and Family
Ramaswamy is married to the beautiful Apoorva Tewari, a distinguished professional in her own right.
Tewari has an M.D. from Yale University, where the two of them met.
She has worked as a resident physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia and Cornell and is currently a throat surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
In an interview on Fox Business with Erick Erickson, Ramaswamy couldn’t stop singing the praises of his wife.
“We had a few short hours last night and this morning together, and I heard about her struggle and accomplishment of this week, which related to the twelve cases that she did as a throat surgeon at Ohio State while being a mother, taking care of our two sons while I’m on the campaign trail trying to do all my part for reviving this nation.” Ramaswamy told Ericson.
“When I go home, do I look at her and say, ‘Hey what I’m doing is more important for our entire family?’ Far from it. Each of us has a contribution to make in our own way. Could I possibly be making the contribution that she’s making every day? No I cannot,” he said.
The couple have two sons together.
3. Rise to Success
With a net worth that recently surpassed $1 billion, Ramaswamy made most of his money from Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical company he founded, which went public in 2021.
He diversified his wealth into other assets, including being part owner of the video platform Rumble.
Transitioning from CEO of Roivant to politics, Ramaswamy authored “Woke, Inc.,” a book critical of corporate focus on social justice and environmental issues.
He also established Strive Asset Management, an “anti-woke” index fund provider valued at around $300 million, advocating for “excellence capitalism” over stakeholder capitalism, according to Forbes.
4. Ramaswamy’s 10 Commandments
Ramaswamy has a list of 10 core beliefs outlining his stance on various issues as part of his platform for the 2024 election.
He posted the list on X with the caption “TRUTH” in all caps.
The list reads:
1. God is real.
2. There are two genders.
3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
4. Reverse racism is racism.
5. An open border is no border.
6. Parents determine the education of their children.
7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.
The clarity with which Ramaswamy outlined his beliefs prompted X CEO Elon Musk to repost his commandments, tweeting, “He states his beliefs clearly,”
5. A supporter of Donald Trump
Ramaswamy has been very vocal in his admiration of Donald Trump. Aside from describing his campaign as “America First 2.0,” Ramaswamy has also been the most vocal among all the presidential candidates in his criticism of the election interference indictments and other charges brought against the former president.
After Trump’s indictment in Georgia, Ramaswamy went as far as offering to write an amicus brief to the court on Trump’s behalf.
“As someone who’s running for President against Trump, I’d volunteer to write the amicus brief to the court myself: prosecutors should not be deciding U.S. presidential elections, and if they’re so overzealous that they commit constitutional violations, then the cases should be thrown out & they should be held accountable,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.
According to a poll done exclusively for The Daily Mail, Ramaswamy was the winner of the first GOP presidential primary debate in Milwaukee on Thursday, beating out the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, by a narrow margin.
In the absence of the forerunner, Donald Trump, Ramaswamy distinguished himself from the crowd of contenders on the stage by positioning himself as the outsider in the race.
“Do you want a Super PAC puppet?’Or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth? Do you want incremental reform, which is what you’re hearing about, or do you want revolution?” he asked the viewers of the debate.
It looks like, at least for a substantial number of GOP voters, his message is resonating.
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