US elections: Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday dropped out of the presidential race for the 2024 elections, after former US President Donald Trump secured a record-setting victory in the Iowa caucuses that pushed the latter closer to a historical rematch with his successor Joe Biden in November. Ramaswamy made the decision after a disappointing fourth place in the caucuses, reported the New York Times.
"As of this moment, we are going to suspend this presidential campaign...There is no path for me to be the next president absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country," Ramaswamy said while endorsing Trump. Ramaswamy, born in Ohio to immigrant parents from southern India, made an impact in the run-up to the presidential elections with his fiery speech and brash policy proposals. He vociferously supported Trump's policies, even vowing to support him despite the four criminal indictments against him, promising to pardon him if elected, and volunteering to remove his name from the ballot in states that disqualified Trump as an "insurrectionist".
In a setback for Ramaswamy, Trump's campaign turned on him two days before the Iowa caucuses by declaring him a fraud and Trump himself called on the voters to reject the 38-year-old entrepreneur and vote for himself, after months of warm ties with his would-be rival. Ramaswamy, who funded his campaign through his personal wealth in biotechnology and finance, called Trump the “best president of the 21st century” even as he tried to convince Republican voters that they should opt for “fresh legs” and “take our America First agenda to the next level.”
Ramaswamy's fiery campaign
The wealthy political outsider also modeled his own bid on Trump's run, campaigning as a fast-talking, headline-grabbing populist who relentlessly needled opponents. He initially gained attention for his hardline policies, and his barbs with another Indian-origin rival Nikki Haley particularly made headlines as he called the former UN ambassador "Dick Cheney in three-inch heels", "fascist and corrupt".
During the third Republican primary debate, an intense moment came when Ramaswamy attacked Haley's daughter for using TikTok, despite Republican criticism of the Chinese-operated platform. “She made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first,” he said. In response, a clearly angry Haley said, "Leave my daughter out of your voice. You have her supporters propping her up, that’s fine. You're just scum."
Ramaswamy later accused Haley of having "a corruption problem" and held up a pad of paper having "NIKKI = CORRUPT" written on it. He also called her a "puppet" and accused her of "using identity politics" as a form of "intellectual fraud". He alleged that while serving as South Carolina governor, Haley accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and that she purportedly awarded multimillion-dollar state contracts to companies that granted her access to private jets.
Other than his feuds with rivals, Ramaswamy also spoke of a “system” that would block Mr. Trump from office, termed the 2021 attack on the US Capitol an “inside job” orchestrated by federal law enforcement, and begun trafficking in the racist theory of “replacement” that claims Democrats are importing immigrants of color to supplant white people.
His support among Republican primary voters rose sharply on the day of the first Republican debate at 11.6 percent, putting him in third place behind DeSantis. However, his efforts failed to maintain attention, as Haley sped ahead of him. Despite holding the most events in Iowa, the Indian-origin entrepreneur failed to see a growth in his national polling.
He promised to end birthright citizenship and affirmative action and said he would close the Education Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies. He also wanted to limit the power of the Federal Reserve and send US troops to the Mexican border, according to the Washington Post.
Ramaswamy also called for seeking economic independence from China, proposing a slew of measures such as expanding relations with India, increasing military spending and increasing production of homegrown semiconductors. He promised to 'gut' the H-1B visa programme primarily used by Indian IT professional services to enter America, calling it an "indentured service".
The Iowa caucuses
Trump set off a great start in his ambitions to return to the White House as he secured a record victory in Iowa's leadoff presidential caucuses on Monday. He was on track to set a record for a contested Iowa Republican caucus with a margin of victory exceeding nearly 13 percentage points. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis finished a distant second, closely ahead of former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Haley plans to compete vigorously in New Hampshire, where she hopes to be more successful with the state’s independent voters heading into the January 23 primary. DeSantis, meanwhile, is heading straight to South Carolina, a conservative stronghold where the February 24 contest could prove pivotal.
So far, Trump is significantly outperforming his second-place 2016 caucus finish, when he received 24 per cent of the vote, compared to 28 per cent for Ted Cruz. A commanding victory for the ex-president would boost his chances of taking on his rival Joe Biden in November's general election, despite four criminal cases against him.
The feeling of the high stakes of the caucuses was palpable in the state as people raved life-threatening temperatures to gather at more than 1,600 schools, community centers and other sites for the state's first-in-the-nation caucus. The wind chill in parts of the state had been forecast to reach minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 43 degrees Celsius) on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
(with inputs from AP)
