Vivek Ramaswamy, 38 year old entrepreneur and investor, stood out among the eight Republican candidates at the first RNC debate.
Vivek claimed to be the only non-politician on the debate stage. The Presidential candidate closely aligns himself with Trump, who wasn’t present. The Former President was mentioned numerous many times by Vivek, even going as far as challenging the other candidates to join him “in making a commitment that on day one you would pardon Donald Trump,” he said in conversation with Former Vice President Mike Pence. He slammed his rivals as “super PAC puppets” who were using “ready-made, pre-prepared slogans” to attack him.
“He was able to both be the center of attention with a lot of attacks, but also was able to get a lot of points out. He was able to state controversial views that aren’t majority opinions, but will win support especially among the Republican primary voters.” said Mark Jones, a professor from Rice University. Some of Vivek’s ideas where demanding fairness in trading he would declare the U.S.’s economic independence from China, to end industrial espionage and proprietary theft by the Chinese and he would incentivize American companies to move supply’s out of China and into allied markets.
Ukraine was a hot topic at the debate and Vivek promised to negotiate an agreement to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine which he referred to as a “no win war”. Vivek did offer his solution to the conflict. He wants to travel to Moscow, accepting Russian control of occupied territories in Ukraine and blocking Ukraine from being allowed to join NATO.
The Democrat party is not a fan of the new guy in town. The Democratic Party war room attacked Vivek saying his foreign policy plan is to “let China invade Taiwan, rewarding Putin for his bloody war in Ukraine, and leaving the United Nations.” They went on to say that “Ramaswamy has also suggested that Taiwan could defend itself by handing guns to every Taiwanese household”.
Former President Trump skipped the first debate, and instead joined former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for an interview on X. Donors for other candidates have griped about the “entitled” manner of the 38-year-old’s debate performance now that he’s made a name for himself. Candidates like Christie, Pence, and Haley, all longtime, experienced politicians – have begun attacking Ramaswamy instead of Trump and DeSantis.
Mike Murphy, a GOP consulting guru says “Ultimately, he’ll wind up as a MAGA profiteer somewhere down the line. He’s real as a curiosity, and my view is that he peaked at the debate and will start a slow decline because he’s an irritating pipsqueak.” Despite all the attacks from his rivals, Ramaswamy seemed to have a great time. Post-debate, there was time to analyze and viewers realized part of his opening speech was almost the exact same as one of Obama’s speeches from years back when Ramaswamy introduced himself as a “skinny kid with a funny name” .
In a poll from the Washington Post, Ron DeSantis came out on top. DeSantis won the debate at 29%, with Ramaswamy at a close second with 26%. Ramaswamy gained on the Florida Governor and newer polls are showing that Desantis is neck and neck with Ramaswamy. The Washington Post goes on to show that former UN ambassador Nicki Haley is at a respectable 15% while Pence, Scott, Christie, Hutchinson, and Burgum all trend under 7%. The candidates are now off to the races again to qualify for the second Republican debate on September 27th in Simi, California.
