US News

Vivek Ramaswamy lists 10 commandments of 2024 campaign, gets promoted by Elon Musk 

Vivek Ramaswamy more than doubles his 2024 support this summer
0 seconds of 1 minute, 42 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
01:42
01:42
 

Biotech entrepreneur and surging 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy listed 10 truths of his campaign platform on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, winning praise from its CEO Elon Musk.

Ramaswamy, 38, laid out several “TRUTH” claims on Thursday, beginning with the statements that “God is real” and “There are only two genders,” in a show of opposition to both anti-religious sentiment and the promotion of gender fluidity.

In subsequent statements on energy, immigration, education and economic policy, the GOP contender said: “Human flourishing requires fossil fuels,” “[r]everse racism is racism,” “[a]n open border is no border,” “[p]arents determine the education of their children,” “[t]he nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind,” and “[c]apitalism lifts people up from poverty.”

Ramaswamy also took a swipe at members of the media — “[t]here are three branches of the U.S. government, not four” — and said the US Constitution “is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.”

The unconventional candidate has made the forthright declarations at several points during his campaign, though not always all at the same time.

He posted the list ahead of an event in California and as he continues a barnstorming blitz across several states before next week’s first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, Wis., which will be co-hosted by Fox News.

Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy shared a list of what he called 10 truths to social media Thursday. REUTERS

“He states his beliefs clearly,” Musk said and reposted the commandments, calling Ramaswamy  “a very promising candidate” in a separate Thursday post.

Musk had previously expressed optimism about the candidacy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, joining the GOP presidential hopeful on a Twitter Spaces event to launch his 2024 campaign this past May.

DeSantis, 44, has long held the second-place spot in the Republican nominating contest behind frontrunner and former President Donald Trump but has lost ground to Ramaswamy, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

TRamaswamy’s list also promotes the importance of fossil fuels, and condemns “reverse racism.” AP

Trump leads that measure with 54.7% support and called on all other candidates to “drop out of the race,” in a Thursday video announcement.

DeSantis sits at 14.8% after having fallen double-digits since entering the primary, followed by Ramaswamy (6.9%), former Vice President Mike Pence (5.4%), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (3.6%), Sen. Tim Scott (2.8%) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (2.7%).

Other potential GOP nominees such as former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd are polling beneath 1%.

During the event at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Ramaswamy shared his concern that the American Dream may not exist for further generations. Getty Images

DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Haley, Scott and Burgum have all met polling and fundraising requirements for the Republican National Committee’s first debate next — and signed a pledge to support the eventual party nominee.

Trump, who has met the RNC threshold for 40,000 individual donors and polling above 1% in several polls, has not committed to attending the debate.

Pence has yet to sign the pledge after meeting the RNC’s requirements. 

Fox News anchor Bret Baier and host Martha MacCallum are set to moderate the debate.

This combination of photos shows Republican presidential candidates: (top row from left) Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; (bottom row from left), former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Vivek Ramaswamy. AP

Ramaswamy has leaned on his personal story during his 2024 run, often saying his success as the son of first-generation Indian immigrants exemplifies the American dream.

“My parents came to this country 40 years ago with no money in a single generation,” he said Thursday night at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif.

“I have gone on to found multi-billion dollar companies and did it while marrying my wife, Apoorva, and raising our two sons. That is the American dream, and I am deeply worried that that American dream will not exist for my two sons and their generation.”

He has also said the nation faces a “1776 moment” in the upcoming election, as it goes through “the middle of a national identity crisis.”

“Faith, patriotism, hard work, and family… have disappeared only to be replaced by new secular religions in American life [such as] wokeism, transgenderism, climate-ism, chauvinism, globalism, depression, anxiety, fentanyl, [and] suicide,” he told the audience at the Nixon Library, adding that the issues “are symptoms of a deeper void of purpose and meaning in our country.”

“We are starved for purpose and meaning and identity at a time in our national history when the things that used to fill our void. Faith, patriotism, belief in God, nation,” he said. “The things we talked about when those have disappeared. That leaves a moral vacuum in its wake. And I think that that presents our opportunity, not speaking to conservatives, I’m speaking to Americans. That is our opportunity to step up and to fill that void with a vision of what it means to be an American today.”