By Jay Pandya

Vivek Ramaswamy is trying to clutch the difficult Republican nomination for President of the United States. He’s incredibly unique in his South Asian background, billionaire status, and extreme conservatism. As of Dec. 10th, he’s ranked 4th in the Republican Primary, trailing behind DeSantis, Haley, and Trump.

Let’s learn a little bit more about Vivek to see if he can lead the free world.

Background

Vivek Ramaswamy was born on August 9, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indian Hindu immigrant parents. His father worked as an electrician, while his mother worked as a geriatric psychiatrist. Graduating at the top of his high school class, he attended Harvard University, where he gained the reputation of a brash libertarian. He became the president of the Harvard Political Union and loved to debate. (He also performed Eminem covers of libertarian rap music under the stage name “Da Vek”.) After graduation, Vivek worked at the hedge fund QVT, acting as a partner and manager of his firm’s biotech portfolio. Vivek’s investments in the company included stakes in Palatin Technologies, Concert Pharmaceuticals, Pharmasset, and Martin Shkreli’s Retrophin. In 2011, Vivek received a post-graduate fellowship by Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, which he used to attend Yale Law School. During his time at Yale, he was already very wealthy, having an estimated net worth of 15 million dollars. He earned his Juris Doctor in 2013. 

In 2014, Vivek founded the biotechnology firm Roivant Sciences, which received over 100 million dollars in start-up capital from QVT and other investors. Roviant’s strategy was to purchase patents from larger pharmaceutical companies for drugs that had not been successfully developed and bring them into the market. In 2015, he raised $360 million in an attempt to market intepirdine as a drug for Alzheimer’s disease. In 2015 Vivek appeared on the cover of Forbes, where he said his company would “be the highest return on investment endeavor ever taken up in the pharmaceutical industry.” At that time the company soared to a profit level of 3 billion dollars, having only three employees including Vivek’s brother and mother. His drug company was called a “tremendous” opportunity that “could help millions” of patients. In 2017, the company announced that intepirdine had failed its largest clinical trial. The company plunged, losing 75% of its value in one day. That same year, Vivek struck a deal with Masayoshi Son in SoftBank, which he was able to get 175 million dollars in gains from. 

Presidential Campaign

On February 21, 2023, Vivek declared his run for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, on Tucker Carlson Tonight. He publicly released his tax returns from 20 years ago and encouraged all of his opponents to do the same. His returns indicated that parts of his campaign are being funded by his assets and money. Vivek is trying to appeal to the evangelical Christian community, who would have a difficult time supporting a Hindu like him. Unlike some other of his opponents, Vivek has strong support for Trump. He condemns the Jan 6th attack on our capital but feels bans on Trump’s social media posts are a violation of his First Amendment rights. He promised to pardon Trump if he becomes President on Trump’s federal charges. Vivek is opposed to affirmative action, and believes that abortion is murder, but supports 6-week abortion ban and exceptions for rape and incest. He thinks the LGBTQ+ movement is a cult and has vowed that if he is elected as president, he would abolish the Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Food and Drug Administration. He supports increasing the legal voting age to 25, making election day a federal holiday, and ending birthright citizenship. He supports inheritance tax and has no position on Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. His most extreme view is that climate change does not exist. 

Vivek is a candidate like no other. From his young age to his cultural background and his controversial positions, it is hard to predict what a presidency would look like under him. The top two leading candidates for president, Biden and Trump, are going to be well into their 80s when they are in office, which is a point of contention for most voters, and which might give Vivek a leg-up.