Following his fourth-place performance in the Iowa caucuses, Republican contender for president Vivek Ramaswamy announced on Monday that he is halting his 2024 presidential campaign.
After 95% of the votes were tabulated, Ramaswamy received 7.7% of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Donald Trump, the former president, won with 51% of the vote; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in a distant second with 21.2%. Third place went to Nikki Haley with 19.1%.
Ramaswamy claimed to have called Trump to congratulate him as the results were in, according to NBC News. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to join Trump for a rally in New Hampshire.
In Des Moines, Ramaswamy declared, “There needs to be an America First candidate in this race.” “Going forward, he will have my full endorsement for the presidency.”
The 38-year-old internet entrepreneur announced his decision to run for office in a Wall Street Journal editorial and during an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight in February 2023.
“We must rediscover America if we are to put America first. In his opinion piece, Ramaswamy stated, “I am running for president because of this. “I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream — one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.”
Since then, Ramaswamy has made headlines for his vocal opposition to businesses using their platforms for social reasons. He has also taken issue with initiatives to halt climate change, self-victimization, and critical race theory.
Ramaswamy has also attacked American diversity initiatives, saying they just highlight individual disparities.
His New York Times best-selling book Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam from 2021 and its follow-up, Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence from 2022, both focused on these points of view.
According to his Strive.com profile page, the Ohio native graduated summa cum laude from Harvard and received a law degree from Yale. He then built several multibillion-dollar IT and health care enterprises.
Ramaswamy’s “anti-activism fund company,” Strive Asset Management, declared in September that it was managing over $1 billion in assets. This announcement coincided with the lawsuit that two of the company’s former employees had filed against the candidate and his co-founder, alleging that they had mistreated employees and pressured them to break securities laws.
During his campaign, Ramaswamy, who was new to politics, garnered media attention for his altercations with Haley.
In a primary debate, Ramaswamy criticized Haley for allowing her daughter Rena, who is 25 years old, to use TikTok, a well-known social media platform owned by China that has become a contentious topic in the Republican Party due to worries about national security. The former governor of South Carolina responded, “You’re just scum.”
