Long-time New Hampshire State Representative Fred Doucette (R-town of Salem), who helped run former President Donald Trump’s campaigns in the Granite State, is leaving the Trump “drama” and joining forces with political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy.
Doucette will serve as senior strategist and co-chair of Ramaswamy’s New Hampshire campaign, Fox News reported.
“Vivek is the person who will deliver the America First agenda, without the drama,” Doucette said in a statement released on Thursday by the Ramaswamy campaign.
The Ohio entrepreneur and anti-woke crusader has all but made first-in-the-nation GOP presidential nominating states New Hampshire and Iowa second homes since he launched his campaign in February.
At 37, Ramaswamy is the youngest candidate in a growing Republican field and his campaign is deemed a long shot by many pundits. But the second-generation Indian-American has seen his political star rising — in fundraising and his top 5 position in the latest Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll.
Ramaswamy has positioned himself as a younger, more energetic “America First” candidate who has said he would “go much further than Trump” in propelling the United States’ greatness.
“I think we have a path forward in Vivek… We’ve got a guy that has a message that resonates, an America First message,” Doucette told Fox News.
Doucette isn’t the only one predicting big things in Ramaswamy’s White House run. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has predicted the young Republican will win a race dominated thus far by Trump and presumptive GOP presidential candidate Governor Ron DeSantis because the country is “ready” for Ramaswamy’s message.
Doucette, who serves as deputy majority leader in New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled state House of Representatives, told Fox News has met with Ramaswamy a number of times. He said the multimillionaire venture capitalist is an “inspirational candidate who can energize Republicans and unite the country.”
His decision to leave the Trump camp didn’t come without some soul searching, though. Doucette said Trump’s agenda worked, adding that the decision not to support the former president as he runs a third straight time was “terribly hard.”
“I came on board in March of 2015 and we were fired up. We were energized. We were engaged. We were about getting it done,” Doucette told the news outlet. The deputy majority leader in the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives however, called Trump’s current campaign “flat.”
But the former president continues to dominate his Republican rivals in poll after poll. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week finds 48 percent of Republicans surveyed say the would support Trump in the presidential primary despite an unprecedented inducement in Manhattan. DeSantis remains a distant second, and his support has dropped eleven points since mid-March (30%) to just 19 percent.
But Doucette said Ramaswamy “gives people someone to vote for, not someone to vote against.”
Ramaswamy said his New Hampshire campaign co-chair knows how to get things done.
“He has a proven track record of leadership, delivering results and winning,” the candidate said in a statement. “We’re taking America First to the next level, and I am confident Fred will be a key asset in our mission in the crucible of New Hampshire politics.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy and Fred Doucette” by Fred Doucette.
