Vivek Ramaswamy dropping out to endorse Donald Trump, campaign says – Des Moines Register
Vivek Ramaswamy is dropping out of the presidential race, his campaign spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Monday night.
“There’s no path for me to be the next president, absent things we don’t want to see happen in this country,” he said in a speech announcing that he was suspending his campaign after coming in 4th place in the Iowa Caucuses.
Ramaswamy said the next president must be an “America First” president. He said he would throw his support behind former President Donald Trump.
At 11 p.m. CST, Ramaswamy had 8,300 votes, or 7.7%, in the Republican caucuses with nearly 98% of votes reported.
Ramaswamy said he and his wife talked about possibilities before the caucus and said there was no path forward for him to become the next president now.
Ramaswamy positioned himself as an “America first” candidate in the mold of Trump. On Jan. 2, Ramaswamy said the movement was “bigger than one man.” Still, Ramaswamy struggled to separate himself from Trump. Many of his supporters interviewed by the Register at events throughout the campaign said they liked Ramaswamy, but they liked Trump more.
Ramaswamy held the most events in Iowa: 323 scheduled public events, according to the Des Moines Register’s Candidate Tracker. His campaign says he visited every one of Iowa’s 99 counties at least twice and visited many counties three or more times. He’s found curious crowds but few die-hard supporters.
Ramaswamy told supporters during a campaign stop in Clive on Monday that his parents came to the U.S. from India with no money, he said. Now he’s founded companies worth billions of dollars, has a wife and two sons and is living the American Dream, he said.
At 38, Ramaswamy said he was the “youngest person ever to run for president as a Republican” and wants to see that dream available for his children.
“I am worried that the American Dream isn’t going to exist for our two sons and their generation unless we all step up and actually do something about it,” he said.
An Ohio native, Ramaswamy built a fortune with biotechnology company Roivant Sciences in 2014. He broke onto the national stage with his 2021 book “Woke, Inc.,” which describes capitalism as an invisible force in politics.
2024 Iowa Caucuses:Results by precinct
Ramaswamy pinned the hopes of his campaign on Iowa, moving his headquarters from his home in Ohio to Des Moines and telling Iowans that his “only chance” was to win Iowa. Another variant of his pitch: “If I win Iowa, I’m your next president.”
Ramaswamy spoke at caucus site Horizon Events Center in Clive after Trump addressed the room. Trump got a standing ovation from the crowd. Ramaswamy said he respects Trump, but that it takes someone “whose best days in life are still yet ahead to see a country whose best days are ahead of itself.”
While campaigning in Iowa, Ramaswamy attracted a small but passionate group of followers enthralled by his polished speeches and relating to his message that the country is in decline. “Truth” became the overriding motto of Ramaswamy’s campaign, insisting that he told voters unpopular but true things, while at the same time injecting conspiracy theories.
His approach did not translate into large support in the polls as Caucus Day neared. In the caucus cycle’s final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll, released on Saturday, 8% of likely Republican caucusgoers said Ramaswamy was their first choice for president, leaving him well behind Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. That was up 3 percentage points from a December Iowa Poll. He had registered 4% in October and August Iowa Polls.
Charles Voss, 72, caucused at the Horizon Events Center. Before the caucus started, Ramaswamy asked him who he would vote for. When Voss told him Trump, Ramaswamy asked Voss to change his mind.
More:How the Iowa Caucuses work, who can caucus and where to caucus
Voss said that he liked interacting with Ramaswamy in person but that he would still vote for Trump.
“I like him, but I think he and Trump could be pretty compatible, pretty strong allies,” Voss said. “I was just telling him, I respect him, I appreciate what he’s doing, but I’m pretty solidly Trump.”
Across the street from the Horizon Events Center, two precincts caucused at Eternity Church, one from Clive and West Des Moines. About 250 people were there. Ramaswamy said that in the U.S., the government is accountable to the people.
Ramaswamy had pledged to secure the southern and northern borders of the U.S. if elected. He also pledged to fire “75% of all federal bureaucrats.” Ramaswamy also pledged for Election Day to become a federal holiday and for elections only to be conducted with paper ballots and for English to be the only language to appear on an election ballot.
“That’s common sense,” Ramaswamy said. “These aren’t Black ideas or white ideas. They shouldn’t be Democrat ideals or Republican ideals. These are American ideals that we fought a revolution in 1776 to secure.”
Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.