Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who poured millions of dollars of his own money into his presidential campaign but barely broke single digits in polling, has dropped out of the 2024 race for the Republican nomination.
In the Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the GOP primary race, Ramaswamy pulled in less than 8% of the vote, coming in fourth behind former President Donald Trump, the winner, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley fought it out for second place.
Ramaswamy has never held elected office but nevertheless announced a bid for the presidency in February. He has been campaigning aggressively ever since, much of the time in a tour bus wrapped with a giant image of himself.
Although he appealed to some voters who liked his brash style and judgmental tone, he quickly earned a reputation as the most annoying candidate in the race after the party’s debates began in August.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie mocked him as a “ChatGPT” candidate at that event. During the second debate, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley eviscerated his positions on the Russia-Ukraine war, with Ramaswamy proposing to cut U.S. support to Kyiv and give Russian leader Vladimir Putin territory that he launched an invasion to seize.
“Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber,” Haley told him during a heated exchange over TikTok.
At the third debate, Ramaswamy invited Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel to join the stage and resign because of the party’s poor showing in the off-year elections — which Ramaswamy attributed to her rather than to the party’s de facto leader, coup-attempting former President Donald Trump.
Indeed, of all the candidates running, Ramaswamy was consistently the most deferential to Trump — even though Trump, who faces various criminal charges, never bothered to show up for any of the debates. He called Trump the “best president of the 21st century” and not only promised to pardon Trump if elected, but demanded that the others running make the same pledge.
Ramaswamy is a near-billionaire from investments and almost certainly could have funded his campaign until the end of primaries. However, his polling peaked in the late summer and early autumn, when it began trending downward.
