Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy biotech entrepreneur and investor has announced that he’s running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In a video released Tuesday night, Ramaswamy, 37, formally launched his longshot bid by decrying what he called a “national identity crisis” that he claims is driven by a left-wing ideology that has replaced “faith, patriotism and hard work” with “new secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology.“
“We have obsessed so much over our diversity and our difference that we forgot all the ways we’re really just the same as Americans,“ he says.
Born in Ohio, Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, founded a biotechnology company before becoming the partner of a hedge fund. He is the author of the books “Woke, Inc.” and “Nation of Victims“ and gained stature in conservative circles for his criticism of the environmental, social and corporate governance movement that aims to promote socially responsible investing.
“We’re in the midst of a national identity crisis. Faith, patriotism & family are disappearing. We embrace one secular religion after another — from wokeism to climatism — to satisfy our deeper need for meaning. Yet we cannot even answer what it means to be an American.
“The GOP can fill that void. E pluribus unum: from many, one. That is the dream that won the American Revolution; that reunited us after the Civil War, that won us two World Wars & the Cold War. That is the dream that still gives hope to the world. That is American exceptionalism.” Ramaswamy, whose parents immigrated from Vadakkencherry in Palakkad, Kerala, co-founded Strive Asset Management and currently serves as the Executive Chairman.