Ramaswamy's approach to politics is same as bisuness: Confidence, no matter what

A POLITICAL NOVICE and one of the world's wealthiest millennials, Vivek Ramaswamy has waged a whirlwind presidential campaign mirroring his meteoric rise as a biotech entrepreneur.

- BILL BARROW

On everything from deporting people born in the United States to ending aid to Israel and Ukraine, he consistently displays the bravado of a populist, self-declared outsider.

"I stand on the side of revolution," he declares. "That's what I'm going to lead in a way that no establishment politician can."

In business and politics, though, Ramaswamy has run into skeptics and sometimes hard facts that threatened to derail his ambitions.

In the 2024 campaign, the Israel-Hamas war has refocused the Republican primary on foreign policy and exposed just how much Ramaswamy's self-declared revolutionary approach puts him at odds with the party's most powerful figures and many of its voters.

Ramaswamy, an Ohio native who also lives there, has wowed many audiences with his rapid-fire, wide-ranging discourse. Yet even some Republican voters who come away impressed are not backing him. He's among a group of candidates who trail former President Donald Trump and generally fall behind DeSantis in national surveys, polling in the mid to high single digits.

Ann Trimble Ray, a Republican activist from Early, Iowa, suggested Ramaswamy "exposes his naivete in part with what he's said about Israel, but also his inexperience." "Unless you've had the experience of someone who has had exposure to the briefings, what you communicate is a whole lot of conjecture," said Ray, who is leaning toward backing Haley.

The 38-year-old son of Indian immigrants has spent his adult life as a sort of boastful savior. In busithat meant building a fortune by hyping a drug that ultimately failed. In politics, it means arguing he can return Trump's "America First" vision to the White House without the baggage.