by COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Ten minutes before Vivek Ramaswamy was to take the stage at a casino hotel in western Iowa, there was no one in the conference room except for two Iowa GOP staffers, who organized the event, and a group of journalists.
The guests started trickling in at the time the event was scheduled. By the time Ramaswamy began his remarks an hour later, there were about 60 people.
Although Ramaswamy is packing his schedule with stops across Iowa, including multiple events on Tuesday and Wednesday, he has failed to move up in the 2024 Republican primary race and is in danger of becoming more of an afterthought. He is polling in the mid to high single numbers and has left critics wondering what his end game is or if he is staying in the race just to boost former President Donald Trump.
Ramaswamy is falling behind just as the GOP campaign enters the crucial final weeks before the Iowa caucuses on January 15. After an earlier flurry of attention, the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur and first-time political candidate once getting more notice on his part. debate triggers are signs that his campaign is resonating with voters.
“If viability was the reason to stay in a race, he’s long since left that behind,” said David Kochel, a Republican strategist who advised Jeb Bush in his 2016 presidential bid. “If you like Vivek Ramaswamy and what he’s saying in this campaign, you already have a candidate, and his name is Donald Trump.”
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is falling behind more and more as they fight for a distant second place, competing for donors and voters who are open to a Trump alternative. Former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott dropped out after running campaigns focused on Iowa that failed to gain traction.
Ramaswamy’s campaign said in early November that it would spend up to $8 million on advertising through the January 15 Iowa caucuses. So far, the campaign has earmarked just $162,000 in broadcast and digital ads for the rest of the Iowa campaign, according to data. from media tracking firm AdImpact.
Haley and her allied super PAC have earmarked nearly $3.5 million over the same period, while DeSantis and his super PAC have earmarked more than $3.3 million.
Tricia McLaughlin, Ramaswamy’s campaign spokeswoman, said events hosted by the campaign have been drawing more people recently, noting that a significant number of event-goers are not registered Republicans.
“We’re reaching out to young people,” she said. “These people are taking the time and effort to come out. These people are not even being politicized because they are not your average chef.”
Ramaswamy has proposed policy ideas that he says continue Trump’s “America First” legacy without the former president’s baggage.
At a GOP event in Florida earlier this month, Ramaswamy drew arguably the biggest cheer when he claimed to be the Republican candidate who supported Trump the most.
“I respect Donald Trump more than anyone else in this race because he was the best president of the 21st century,” Ramaswamy said. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again because it’s the right thing to do. We will honor that legacy.”
Trump remains dominant, even as he faces four criminal indictments and questions about whether he can beat President Joe Biden after losing in 2020.
After the October 7 surprise attack on Israel, Ramaswamy has drawn criticism for not being as staunchly pro-Israel as other GOP candidates. Two days after the Hamas attack, he suggested that the US withhold aid to Israel until its government detailed its plans for Gaza. Republican voters are increasingly aligning with Israel.
Voters and strategists critical of Ramaswamy point to his stance on Israel, but also to his age and religion.
Ramaswamy is a Hindu and would be the first elected non-Christian president. Iowa’s Republican voters are overwhelmingly white and Christian, and evangelicals hold huge sway in the caucuses.
The meeting in the Council Bluffs hotel began with an opening prayer that ended with “in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ”. The crowd responded with a collective “amen”.
Although he was praised and applauded for some of his views, when he opened up about his religion, he was met with silence.
“I was the first Hindu president we had in the United States,” he said. “I will tell you about my faith. I believe in one true God. I believe that God put each of us here for a purpose, that we have a moral obligation to fulfill that purpose.”
Ramaswamy did not take questions from the audience or reporters. Many people in the audience declined to speak to an Associated Press reporter afterward.
Rebecca Wilkerson, a 52-year-old voter from Mondamin, Iowa, said most of her friends and family still support Trump as they have for the past seven years, but she is now looking for a change, saying that Trump is too old for the White House at 77. She became a supporter of Ramaswamy despite the concerns of those around her about his religion.
“They can’t get over the fact that he’s a Hindu,” Wilkerson said. “But I’m not voting based on that. I like his policies, and that’s the most important thing to me in a president.”
The next day, Ramaswamy attended a roundtable with Haley and DeSantis hosted by Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Christian activist in Iowa. In what was described as a “family discussion,” the three candidates spoke to each other while avoiding going after each other. Vander Plaats asked each of them faith-related questions.
“I think it’s only fair to address the highest concern I believe from what I’m hearing,” Vander Plaats told Ramaswamy. “We don’t have the same faith. I am a Christian. You are a Hindu, and you have focused your campaign on the truth. So a question that many of the caucusers have is, what truth?”
Ramaswamy said he appreciated the question. With his 3-year-old son, Karthik, Ramaswamy in his womb, Ramaswamy repeated what he told the room in Council Bluffs, that he believed in one true God and that God “put all of us here for a purpose.”
“My faith teaches me that we have a duty, a moral duty, to achieve that purpose, that we are God’s instruments,” he said. “He works through me in different ways, but we are still equal because God lives in each of us.”
Ron Bonjean, GOP strategist and former top congressional aide, noted that Ramaswamy was trying to build on the momentum built in the first debate, when he got the spotlight, introducing himself as a thin man with a difficult name. to pronounce. He then declared that he was the only person on stage who was not bought and paid for.
“He’s aggressive. He’s trying to do everything right to get noticed, to show voters that he’s an alternative to Trump,” Bonjean said, adding that his effort is seen as a “mini-me Trump.”
“He’s great at debating other candidates on stage, but he can’t back it up with real world leadership and government experience,” he said.
Lisa Unnerstall, 63, a Republican voter from Fort Myers, Florida, said she likes Ramaswamy and would like to see him serve in Trump’s Cabinet because of his “forward thinking.” But she said Trump and DeSantis are her first and second choices.
“I’m concerned about his age,” Unnerstall said of Ramaswamy. “I don’t think one has to be a longtime politician to be president. Of course, I voted for Trump. He was not a politician. So I think it’s more about life experience.”
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Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Chad Day in Washington contributed to this report.
