‘Anti-woke’ GOP entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announces 2024 presidential run

The 2024 Republican presidential field got a little bigger on Tuesday after Vivek Ramaswamy launched his campaign for the White House during a live interview on Fox News. 

The 37-year-old Ramaswamy, a frequent guest on Fox News, is a health care and tech sector entrepreneur, and an author known for his criticism of so-called “woke culture” and “woke capitalism.”

Ramaswamy made his long-anticipated announcement on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday, telling the host that the US is “in the middle of this national identity crisis.” 

“We have celebrated our diversity and our differences for so long, that we forgot all of the ways we’re really just the same as Americans, bound by a common set of ideals that set this nation into motion 250 years ago,” Ramaswamy said, before making the big announcement. 

“And that’s why I’m proud to say tonight that I am running for United States president, to revive those ideals in this country,” Ramaswamy told Carlson. 

“Those basic rules of the road: meritocracy, the idea that you get ahead in this country, not on the color of your skin, but on the content of your character. The idea that you are allowed to speak freely, yes to be wrong sometimes, as long as your neighbor gets the same courtesy in return. The idea that the people who we elect to run the government, by the way, are the people who actually run the government, basic rules of the road,” he added. 

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“These are the things that bind us together. You and I have different shades of melanin, you know what I’d say? So what? That’s not beautiful, that is not our strength. Our diversity is meaningless if there’s nothing greater that binds us together across that diversity. And the reason that I’m running for president is to revive those ideals and I believe deep in my bones, they still exist,” Ramaswamy said. 

Ramaswamy, the founder of investment firm Strive Asset Management and author of a best-selling book titled “Woke, Inc.”, has urged corporate giants, such as Apple and Disney, to keep politics out of their businesses – demanding that companies prioritize profits while avoiding political discourse that could tarnish their brands.

Strive, which has stakes in both Apple and Disney, aims to challenge the corporate emphasis on environmental, social and governance standards, known as “ESG.”

Ramaswamy seems to have the backing of at least one major potential donor. 

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman appeared to throw his support behind Ramaswamy last week.

“I am going to make a bold and early call. [Vivek Ramaswamy] will run for POTUS and win. I think the country is ready for his message,” Ackman tweeted. 

“He is a very talented and successful entrepreneur who understands business, economics, health care, politics, history and geopolitics. You won’t likely agree with all of his views, but you will respect his candor, acumen, discipline and energy. One to watch,” he added.

Ramaswamy, christened “the C.E.O. of Anti-Woke, Inc.” in a 2022 New Yorker magazine profile, will kick off his presidential campaign with multiple stops in New Hampshire on Wednesday, according to Fox News. 

Other Republicans vying for the White House in 2024 include former President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, who was previously Trump’s UN Ambassador and the governor of South Carolina.