Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times/Redux
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy greets attendees at an event in New Albany, Ohio, on September 21, 2023.
CNN
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Less than three months ago, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was gaining traction in the polls, backed by a populist underdog message and a attention grabbing performance in the first municipal debate. Today, the Ohio businessman remains stuck in the single digits in a diluted GOP primary.
Former President Donald Trump — whom Ramaswamy has repeatedly defended and praised — remains the front-runner for the GOP nomination. Governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis and former governor of South Carolina. Nikki Haley are vying to be seen as Trump’s primary alternative in a field that has shrunk with the recent departures of former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
At the most recent Republican debate in Miami, Ramaswamy bet he attacked the Republican National Committee chair Rhona McDuneyl, I question Moderator Kristen Welker, instead of answering the question he was asked and trying to tease Haley about her daughter’s use of TikTok, would turn the national political spotlight on himself. He did not do it. ONE 538/Washington Post/Ipsos Poll of likely GOP primary voters who watched the debate found his unfavorable rating rising 12 points to 47 percent.
Ramaswamy and his team recently moved to reallocate staff and resources. The campaign moved most of its staff from Columbus, Ohio to New Hampshire and Iowa — a move campaigns often make as a strategic Hail Mary to build momentum around a strong performance in an early state. The staff change came days after the campaign announced about $10 million in ad buys in Iowa and New Hampshire, its first major buy of the cycle.
The Ramaswamy campaign believes these moves, combined with his confrontational rhetoric at the Miami debate, will translate into improvements in the polls — but not immediately.
“In this third debate, he definitely came out of nowhere, which I think everybody saw, and I think that’s the tone that’s going to continue for the rest of the campaign,” said senior campaign adviser Tricia McLaughlin. “We relied purely on earned media and on-site events. We will change tactics in New Hampshire and Iowa. We’re hopeful that between a strong showing in the debate and the earned media, that he’ll start to see some bumps. I don’t think we’ll see the difference until January.”
McLaughlin pointed to internal campaign data that suggests polls of likely Republican voters may be underestimating Ramaswamy’s appeal. In the previous fundraising quarter, 38 percent of contributions came from donors who had never contributed to a Republican candidate before Ramaswamy, McLaughlin said.
Most telling to observers, however, was Ramaswamy’s inability to maintain the underdog message he was using to foray into national politics. Initially, the Ohio businessman framed his campaign as an underdog “America First” operation focused on popularizing the common man à la Trump. Ramaswamy and his team used time that could have been spent in early GOP nomination states to embark on a “Michigan Unforgotten American Tour” through the Wolverine State with stops in Flint, Saginaw and Big Rapids.
An Ivy League graduate, Ramaswamy, however, also tends to engage in debates that veer more toward academia and away from the appeals to red meat beloved of conservative grassroots supporters. Ramaswamy regularly talks about foreign policy priorities such as strengthening “space-based” military capabilities and super-EMP weapons. He often moves to strengthen US trade relations with countries such as India, Japan and Chile as a way to counter China’s influence on the US economy. On Thursday, Ramaswamy presents his cryptocurrency policy at the North American Blockchain Summit in Texas.
Michael Duncan, a Republican strategist and co-host of the “Ruthless” podcast, said Ramaswamy has veered too far into “ShamWow conservatism” in which a candidate tries to outdo his rivals on everything from speeches and intensity to policy proposals.
“It’s sad to see a candidate so smart and talented belittle himself with trite slogans,” Duncan said. “I think it’s a symptom of constantly following what’s on Twitter. If you’re into cryptocurrencies and NFTs trading, you’re probably really into what Vivek has to say. But I think there is an upper limit to that audience. They may be very strong online, but they don’t represent anything close to a majority of the Republican electorate.”
On Wednesday, the campaign doubled down on attacking McDaniel, launching a petition calling for the president to resign from the RNC. Ramaswamy’s argument is that McDaniel chaired the committee during several campaign cycles that had seen Republican candidates do poorly or underperform expectations.
“We have become a party of losers at the end of the day,” Ramaswamy said during the debate in Miami. “I mean, since Ronna McDaniel took over as RNC chair in 2017, we’ve lost 2018, 2020, 2022 — no red tide that ever came. We crushed 2023 last night. And I think we have to have responsibility in our party.”
Ramaswamy’s attacks on McDaniel and the RNC speak to a broader messaging strategy that prioritizes breadth and volume over a more tailored approach to campaigning. He has spent extensive portions of multiple public appearances voicing his views on the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. As part of his proposal to tackle abortion, he has repeatedly called for “sexual responsibility for men” to be “codified into law”, a policy he says would place a greater financial burden on fathers confirmed through paternity tests. On Veterans Day, he announced a plan to allow veterans suffering from PTSD symptoms to use psychedelic drugs as part of their treatment.
Ramaswamy also spent time in New Hampshire in a one-on-one debate with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a move that offers little strategic upside during the Republican primary.
There is little evidence that any of this has done him any favors. Where Haley has been steadily gaining in the polls amid a string of strong debate performances, the Ohio businessman’s standing has remained stubbornly static.
For his part, Ramaswamy says the contradictions and tangents allow him to present his most comfortable self, which he believes will benefit voters.
“I’m unrestrained in saying what needs to be said that others are not saying about the Republican Party, about the Democratic Party, about the media. And my bet is that’s going to be the winning political strategy,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash after the debate last week. “So we’re going to go with the truth about where I’m at at my best, which is being stripped down, letting go, telling the truth, not just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard. And I think our bet is that it will be the successful approach.”
One thing Ramaswamy insists on is running a unique campaign. After the third debate, he took time out to wakeboard in Miami with social media influencer Kaz Sawyer. The two promised to do something “even crazier” before the next debate if the video of their wakeboarding excursion goes viral.