Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will be all over New Hampshire this Labor Day weekend — at a fair in Contoocook, a house party in Dublin, town halls in Conway and Laconia, and a parade and a picnic in the mix.
In all, the Ohio businessman will press the flesh and ascend the stump at 11 events over four days.
It’s the kind of breakneck pace that has made Ramaswamy the most prolific campaigner in a crowded field of Republican presidential contenders and is a big reason for his ever-rising poll numbers.
The anti-woke crusader who made his fortune in biotech boasts more than 200 campaign appearances in more than a dozen states since launching his “long-shot” bid for the White House in February, according to a Star News Network review of Ramaswamy’s campaign schedule. He had recorded 202 campaign stops before last month’s first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee.
Ramaswamy, not surprisingly, has spent the brunt of his time campaigning in first-nominating states — 166 stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina as of debate week, accounting for more than 80 percent of his campaign trips. As of Tuesday, Ramaswamy logged 88 appearances in Iowa, 63 in New Hampshire, and 15 in South Carolina.
According to Ballotpedia, Ramaswamy has spent more time in Iowa than any other candidate in the Republican Party presidential nomination chase — significantly more in many cases. As of Friday, Ramaswamy had spent at least 31 days in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, 12 days more than former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, 13 days more than Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and 17 more than South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott. He far exceeds Trump’s total of four trips to the Hawkeye State.
The Star News Network reached out to many of the top-tier candidates’ campaigns, requesting their campaign schedules and comments. Only Ramaswamy’s campaign sent information.
Former Iowa State Senate President Jake Chapman, Ramaswamy’s Iowa co-chair, was with the candidate at last month’s debate. He’s long lauded Ramaswamy’s boundless energy and movement. He said it’s infectious.
“There is an energy level in these rooms where people come out of the room inspired and wanting to do something,” Chapman recently told The Des Moines Register. “It’s one thing to go hear a boring political speech. That’s not what you get with Vivek Ramaswamy.”
Perhaps it’s youthful exuberance. Ramaswamy, at 38, is just three years beyond the constitutional minimum age to serve as President of the United States. The graduate of Harvard and Yale Law School founded the largest biotech IPO of 2015 and 2016. He’s the author of three books taking on the woke movement and the far-left agenda.
Now he’s tapping into all of that energy to, in his words, launch more than a campaign for president, but a political revolution.
“I think we live in a 1775 moment. That’s what I think 2023 is, it’s a 1775 moment, where there’s electricity in the air and all the reasons we have to be despondent, the answer is, no, you don’t hide from the electricity in the air, you go outside and catch it. You do something with it,” he told billionaire entrepreneur and author Grant Cardone in a recent interview. “And that’s the choice in this Republican primary. Do you want incremental reform, working within the system we have, … or do you want revolution? And I stand on the side of the revolution. The American revolution. And we are blessed to live in moments such as these.”
His appearance on Cardone’s podcast was just one of scores of media — particularly new media — appearances Ramaswamy has harnessed in a stunningly omnipresent social media campaign, creating plenty of viral moments and connection to a younger voter that has disengaged from politics.
Ramaswamy’s ideas of revolution, including pledging to take Trump’s America First principles to the next level, have chaffed many Republicans, particularly his presidential opponents, looking up at him.
At the debate, he was the main target of attack, particularly from Pence, Haley, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The rhetorical war of words has continued with a back and forth on Ramaswamy’s proposal for “recalibrated” America First foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East and in the war in Ukraine.
Part of the onslaught is by virtue of the young Republican’s success. His campaign likes to point to his zero-to-top-tier rise in the polls over his six-month run. That is, when he jumped into the race, few knew who he was. The polls reflected that fact with flat line force.
Now, he’s polling at 7.5 percent nationally, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of Republican Primary presidential polls. Only DeSantis, at 14.5 percent, stands between Ramaswamy and Trump, who, at nearly 53 percent support among Republican voters, continues to beat the brains out of the competition. But Ramaswamy is part of the reason for DeSantis’ diminishing support, from a dominant No. 2 before he launched his campaign in late May to weeks of losing ground amid staff turnover and messaging troubles.
Haley, the only woman in the GOP presidential field, has picked up ground post-debate, in part by attacking the millennial Republican just ahead of her in the polls. Haley has overtaken Pence for fourth place, with 5.7 percent support, according to RealClearPolitics.
“He’s had tremendous success so far going from … zero point zero in the polls to the third place, or in some polls, second place,” GOP strategist Dave Carney told National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. “The problem is [his] ideas limit — cap — his growth.”
Ramaswamy and his team disagree. They’re building a presidential campaign on a single word: Truth. The strategy is to speak truth to power, to shake up the establishment, the status quo, the swamp. In so doing, the political outsider who has been criticized for his lack of political experience has set about painting rivals like Pence, Haley, and DeSantis as establishment figures.
Ramaswamy’s revolution is built on a sizeable ground game in the early nominating states, growing weekly.
Brett Barker, chair of the Story County GOP and mayor of Nevada, Iowa, told NBC News that the campaign’s staffing levels in Iowa are among the most robust in the 2024 campaign.
“It’s actually one of the stronger ground games in the state right now,” Barker told the news outlet.
New Hampshire political sources say the same can be said for Ramaswamy’s efforts in the Granite State.
The presidential hopeful rolled into New Hampshire this weekend, announcing endorsements from more than 200 statewide and local leaders in the state, including 14 county chairs and 47 town chairs.
“Since the launch of this campaign, our New Hampshire team led by state director Josh Whitehouse, has built over 60 public events, with an average attendance of 183 people; recruited hundreds of volunteers; and have made close to 700,000 voter contacts,” National Political Director Brian Swensen said. “They have built a top-notch grassroots organization that delivers results day in and day out and the best is still to come.”
Ramaswamy has room to grow in New Hampshire and Iowa. He’s polling at 6 percent in New Hampshire, good for fifth place, according to RealClearPolitics poll averages. He’s running fourth in Iowa, at 5.2 percent. But he’s made good ground in both early nominating states.
Meanwhile, the most prolific campaigner in the race has no plans to slow down.
Ramaswamy will be back in Iowa next week for a two-day, six-city stop, four of those on Friday. He’s hitting central, western, and eastern Iowa with a Saturday campaign stop at the event of all events: The Iowa/Iowa State annual college football game.
If his life story and the opening months of the 2024 presidential campaign are any indication, Ramaswamy will remain relentless.
“Lesson I learned from my parents: hard work is the fastest shortcut to success,” he wrote on his Twitter account in May.
Lesson I learned from my parents: hard work is the fastest shortcut to success. https://t.co/HgBRTMlgMt
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) May 9, 2023
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” and Background Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy Campaign Event” by Vivek Ramaswamy.
