By Elias Barcena 
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy: American biotech entrepreneur, author, activist, and presidential hopeful. The 38-year-old, who has never held public office, currently sits in third place in RNC polling (7.5%). This has led many to the question: who is Vivek Ramaswamy?
Early Life & Education
Vivek Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1985 to Indian-Hindu immigrants. His father was an engineer and patent attorney for General Electric, while his mother was a geriatric psychiatrist. Throughout his youth, Vivek Ramaswamy often attended a local Hindu temple and traveled to India over the holidays. Ramaswamy’s political views were influenced at a young age by his piano teacher, who gifted him a Ronald Reagan novel. Starting in high school Vivek Ramaswamy attended St. Xavier Jesuit High School, graduating as valedictorian. Since announcing his bid for presidency, his valedictorian speech has widely circulated through social media platforms.
Attending Harvard University from 2003 to 2007, Mr. Ramaswamy majored in Biology while remaining politically active. Mr. Ramaswamy was president of the Harvard Political Union, a member of the honor society “Phi Betta Kappa”, and a known “brash libertarian” who “enjoyed” debating. The Republican presidential hopeful also used the stage name “Da Vek” while performing Libertarian-themed parodies using Eminem songs as inspiration. The Republican presidential hopeful continued to rap Eminem songs at the start of his campaign, a move that prompted the Detroit-based rapper to send Ramaswamy a cease-and-desist.
After graduating from Harvard in 2007, Mr. Ramaswamy attended Yale Law School. While at Yale, Ramaswamy was part of the “Shabtai” Jewish intellectual discussion society. He also befriended future US Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), who later invested in his business and has endorsed his presidential run.
During his studies at Yale, Ramaswamy was awarded a fellowship for children of immigrants pursuing graduate studies in the US from the Soros family. During an interview, Mehdi Hassan of MSNBC questioned Ramaswamy because Mr. Ramaswamy claims that at the time of acceptance, he was already wealthy from businesses in the biotech and finance industries.
Business Endeavors
While at Harvard, Ramaswamy and his friend, Travis May, co-founded Campus Venture Network, a social networking platform designed to connect university students aspiring to launch a business. He also worked at QVT Financial, a hedge fund, from 2007 to 2014, comanaging the company’s biotech portfolio.
In 2015, Ramaswamy founded Roivant Sciences, a healthcare company. The company is currently incorporated in Bermuda. Roivant received almost $100 million from numerous investors, including QVT Financial. The company’s strategy was to purchase pharmaceutical patents that had not yet been developed and bring them to market. Central to Roivant’s rise was Intepirdine, a drug for Alzheimer’s, which Roivant Sciences purchased for $5 million. A year later, Ramaswamy raised $360 million to market the drug through Roivant’s subsidiary, Axovant Sciences. Axovant was subsequently made public, raising $315 million in its initial public offering. The company was then valued at nearly 3 billion dollars, largely due to the hope that Intepirdine was a breakthrough in the pharmaceutical industry. Ramaswamy then sold a large percentage of his shares to Viking Global Investors.
In 2017, Roivant announced Interpirdine had failed its clinical trial, losing 7% of its valuation in a single day. Ramaswamy later said he was “hurt” that the company Roivant was “close to having a major impact, and didn’t” when asked at the BIO CEO & Investor Conference in New York. Mr. Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO of Roivant in 2021, while Axovant dissolved in 2023. Ramaswamy continues to own a 7.17% stake in Roivant.
Presidential Effort & Views
On February 21st, 2023, Ramaswamy announced on the former Fox News Show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that he was running for President of the United States as a Republican candidate. Following this, Ramaswamy released 20 years of his personal tax returns, a move he called for his fellow nominees to do. Ramaswamy has pitched himself as a conservative with a mission of reviving “a missing national identity”. Additionally, Mr. Ramaswamy has supported former president Donald Trump consistently throughout his campaign, calling him the “greatest president of the 21st Century”.
Ramaswamy’s polling averages have increased significantly since announcing his presidential effort, polling at 0.8% in March of 2023, ranking 7th in Republican polling. He is currently polling at 7.2%, placing him at 3rd for Republican candidates, according to FiveThirtyEight. Some credit Mr. Ramaswamy’s increased popularity to his “Twitter campaign”, connecting with voters through social media. Ramaswamy’s Tiktok account, that has garnered upwards of 95 thousand followers and 691 thousand likes, covers his day-to-day activities while campaigning for the Republican nomination. Ramaswamy’s Tiktok account recently came under criticism by fellow candidate Nikki Haley, who expressed concerns over the company’s ties to China.
Another strong factor for Ramaswamy’s surging popularity is his performances in the two Republican debates. In the first RNC debate, a poll conducted by JLPartners reported that Ramaswamy had “won the debate”, according to Republican voters. In the second debate, Ramaswamy had over 12 minutes of talking time, the most of any candidate.
In regards to his views, Ramaswamy has presented himself as pro-life, anti-affirmative action, and anti-woke. He is in favor of federally legalizing marijuana, stating in an interview that America needs to “catch up with the times”, despite it not being a “popular Republican opinion”. Ramaswamy has also taken a strong stance in rejecting the scientific consensus of human-influenced climate change. Throughout the campaign trail, Ramaswamy has proposed several policies that he intends to enact should he receive the nomination, such as a pledge to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. He has also proposed raising the voting age to 25 years for all U.S. citizens, unless a citizenship test is passed or individuals work as first responders or serve in the military.
Looking Forward
Sitting 51 points behind Former President Donald Trump in updated polls, it seems unlikely that Mr. Ramaswamy will catch up to lead the Republican ticket. Some analysts, such as talk-show analyst Glenn Beck, believe that Vivek Ramaswamy would be a great candidate to receive the Vice-President bid in a potential Trump ticket, especially after Trump’s falling out with Mike Pence, his former Vice President. In response to this, the former President praised Ramaswamy, calling him a “very intelligent person”. It is unclear who Former President Trump would name as his Vice President if he were to receive the Republican nomination, and if Ramaswamy would accept.