Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has announced he is running as a Republican for president in 2024 on an “anti-woke” platform.
“I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream — one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence,” said Ramaswamy.
The Cincinnati-born author of two books says progressives are doing permanent damage to America by promoting identity politics and dividing the country along racial, gender and other lines.
“We embrace secular religions like climatism, Covidism and gender ideology to satisfy our need for meaning, yet we can’t answer what it means to be an American,” Ramaswamy, 37, wrote in a Wall Street Journal essay that announced his candidacy.
“The Republican Party’s top priority should be to fill this void with an inspiring national identity that dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance,” Ramaswamy added.
He filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday and planned to address a Republican event in Iowa Thursday.
It’s not clear whether the Harvard- and Yale-educated Ramaswamy can garner significant support from Republican primary voters.
He will be competing for attention with other GOP candidates and potential candidates who also decry “woke” liberalism, an ill-defined ideology they say is used to humiliate traditional white American values.
He is the second challenger to former President Donald Trump to enter the 2024 GOP field, along with Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador.
Other heavyweights like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are believed to be considering jumping into the race.
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