Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy
By CASEY HARPER
THE CENTER SQUARE
(The Center Square) – A new Republican candidate threw his hat into the presidential race late Tuesday, focusing his campaign on an “anti-woke” agenda.
Vivek Ramaswamy, an author, activist, and a multimillionaire businessman, announced his candidacy on Tucker Carlson tonight and with a string of Tweets
“We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis,” Mr. Ramaswamy wrote on Twitter. “Faith, patriotism & hard work have disappeared. Wokeism, climatism & gender ideology have replaced them. We hunger for purpose yet cannot answer what it means to be an American. We long for that answer. That’s why I’m running for President.”
Mr. Ramaswamy said “ending affirmative action” would be a top priority for him upon taking office and named China as the top foreign policy threat to the U.S. and called for going after the Mexican cartels. He emphasized the importance of meritocracy, free speech, and self governance on Mr. Carlson’s program.
“People who we elect, make them actually run the government rather than this cancerous federal bureaucracy,” he said. “That’s going to be the heart of my message.”
Mr. Ramaswamy’s announcement comes after Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and presidential Cabinet member, announced earlier this month she is running for president.
Ms. Haley, 51, served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration. Mr. Trump also announced last year he is running for president.
Mr. Ramaswamy lives in Columbus, Ohio with his family. He has written two books, “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” as well as his second book, “Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.”
“We’ve celebrated our ‘diversity’ so much that we forgot all the ways we’re really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago,” Mr. Ramaswamy wrote on Twitter. “I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I’m running for President to revive them.”
