Troy Tomson

Site Manager Troy Tomson shakes hands with presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy last Wednesday in the Tanglewood Hills building.

Vivek Ramaswamy has been gaining in the polls recently, going from an unknown candidate with under 1% in polls to surpassing Florida Governor Ron Desantis to take the number 2 spot in the primaries. His past successful business endeavors are the biggest appeals to voters. 

While still distant from Donald Trump’s lead, Ramaswamy is setting himself up to be a good choice for Trump’s vice president, or at least take a high position in government office if he does not become president. Ramaswamy has repeatedly supported Trump, as well as promising to pardon Trump if elected president and challenging former Vice President Mike Pence to do the same. 

His rise in the polls was accomplished by setting himself apart from ‘career politicians’ with both his libertarian proposed policies and his eccentricity during the first primary debate. Ramaswamy plans to wipe out many government agencies, which he claims are unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer dollars, and therefore makes him more appealing to voters

A few PV students attended his recent campaign stop last Wednesday in Bettendorf, Iowa at the Tanglewood Hills venue where he covered his plan to solidify the end of affirmative action, end government bureaucracy by using term limits, and follow his “TRUTH” pamphlet styled after Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

The ideas written in the pamphlet are quite jarring to a postmodern society. Phrases like ‘God is real’, ‘Reverse racism is racism’ and ‘The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to man.’ fill the pamphlet, attracting a lot of attention.

Although Ramaswamy briefly mentioned his economic goal of increasing GDP by more than 5%, his main focus was on social goals.

During the speech, he made an appeal to the conservative side of moral and social issues, such as restoring a national identity and making school choice a priority. The hope of the former is to unite us in a nation divided, and the latter is to force poor-performing, inner-city public schools to compete with more successful public, private and charter alternatives.

At the event, Ramaswamy was asked a question about whether TikTok be banned nationwide due to ethical and security issues. He answered, “Under the age of 16. In overcoming China, we do not want to become like them.” As the youngest Republican to run for president, his stance on social media could be alienating to younger voters.

However, some students, like junior Connor Vandernat have seen the damage social media like TikTok has caused to Gen Z. “TikTok to me is a time trap getting kids stuck in an unproductive loop. Social media is good as a social platform, but I feel that what they say and do on social media could always come back to haunt them later in life. I do know that both of these options have plenty of downsides but I also understand that they choose to watch TikTok’s and post on social media. I feel that yes, both of these are bad things for kids to be using, but ultimately I feel that it is up to parents and kids to decide on if it’s worth it to use the platforms,” Vandernat stated.

Many conservatives are looking to move past the divisive Trump era and move to a younger, more libertarian candidate. Ramaswamy fulfills all of this by focusing on radical change, as opposed to ‘slow, incremental change’ sought after by other candidates, is only 38 years old and has the intelligence and business experience to back it up.