For a few days in early 2025, Britain and America could have something in common that would give their “special relationship” a whole new meaning. Both could be run by sons of Indian immigrants.
The last possible date for the next general election is 28 January 2025. If Rishi Sunak stops for that long – and if the current polls correctly predict a Labor Party victory – there is a chance his final days will end up in No 10 with the first few days of a US presidency whose shock value would dwarf even Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016.
The next president will be sworn in on January 20, 2025. And tomorrow’s first televised debate in the Republican presidential primary could be just the moment when 38-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy, a native of swing-state Ohio, sets his sights on becoming the youngest commander-in-chief in American history.
Ramaswamy is the American Dream personified. Like Rishi Sunak’s, his parents, who came to the United States from Kerala in southern India, worked in humble jobs. Ramaswamy’s father was an engineer at General Electric while his mother was a psychiatrist and worked with elderly patients.
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks with Erick Erickson August 19 at The Gathering in Atlanta, Georgia
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visits the Busy Bees Nursery in Harrogate, North Yorkshire on August 21
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at Erick Erickson’s conservative political conference, The Gathering, in Atlanta
Young Vivek was educated in the Ohio state school system, earned a place at Harvard University, where he earned a degree in biology, and then earned a law degree from Yale.
Immediately after Harvard, he founded his first company and after a stint at a hedge fund, created a successful biotech start-up that went on to be worth over $1 billion. He recently founded an investment firm aimed at countering the influence of far-left ideology being foisted on American corporations by Wall Street financiers who are under the spell of race, gender and climate activists.
In fact, he wrote a book about this phenomenon, Woke Inc: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam. And that first put him on the political radar when he became a leading critic of “ESG” (environmental and social governance) – the controversial idea that companies should pursue nebulous “social” goals alongside commercial ones.
In addition, Ramaswamy, a devout Hindu, has two young sons with his wife Apoorva, plays tennis and piano – and even manages to recite rap lyrics at campaign events without making a complete fool of himself.
It’s worth asking how a political novice managed to catapult himself to the top of the presidential field, ahead of luminaries like former Vice President Mike Pence, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley – also a child of Indian immigrants – a US Senator and various former governors.
The media is fixated on Donald Trump’s escalating legal troubles and Joe Biden’s growing corruption scandal involving his son Hunter’s sleazy influence. Still, Ramaswamy has steadily risen in the polls among Republican voters and is now on track to become the leading alternative to Trump in the presidential primary.
That role was, of course, to be filled by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. For two years during the pandemic, DeSantis was the hero of the anti-lockdown resistance, staunchly rejecting the medical establishment’s cruel, destructive dogma and withstanding the media’s hysterical demands for compliance with nonsensical Covid rules.
DeSantis kept Florida’s businesses and schools open, unlike Democratic-run states like New York and California.
The results speak for themselves: the Sunshine State experienced Covid outcomes little different from those of the lockdown states, but without the catastrophic economic and social damage caused by the shutdown. In return, DeSantis was rewarded — first by hundreds of thousands of Americans moving to the “Florida Free State,” and then by the state’s voters, who re-elected him last November in a stunning 20-point landslide victory.
With Donald Trump-backed candidates losing most of their elections, DeSantis was poised to become the next Republican flag-bearer, hailed in the media as “DeFuture.”
He would offer “Trumpism without Trump”: all the former president’s popular measures, like controlling immigration and creating good-paying jobs for workers, but without the baggage and distractions. If any expert had predicted last November that DeSantis would enter the first presidential debate in third place in some polls, behind a 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur most Americans had never heard of (and whose name it is was difficult). (some of the few who did) would have been called fantasists.
Vivek Ramaswamy attends the 10X Ladies Empowerment Seminar on August 4th at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa
Governor Ron DeSantis campaigns in New Hampshire for his Never Back Down Campaign New Hampshire
While I certainly did not anticipate Ramaswamy’s run into the presidential election, let alone his rapid rise, I am not at all surprised that he is making such an impact. He’s been a frequent guest on my TV show and podcast, and we chat up from time to time. I know Vivek a little and I like him a lot.
The reason his campaign has garnered so much attention is because it embodies the qualities that voters everywhere want in their politicians: energy, optimism, intellect, and authenticity—all rooted in strong, clear principles that have not ever changed by time, place or place change audience. We could even call it Thatcherite.
His energy is tireless. Ramaswamy seems to be everywhere at once. This includes taking his arguments directly to those who may disagree. You can find several clips where he fights with left-leaning news anchors, but always calmly, politely and with intellectual power. Republican voters love it when their candidates take on the media.
In contrast, Ron DeSantis avoided potentially hostile interviews for months as part of what he called a “safe spaces” strategy.
Watch a Ramaswamy speech or a lengthy podcast interview and you’ll be amazed at how clearly he articulates weighty arguments, backed by deep knowledge of history and politics. He never dumbs it down. You won’t hear any short remarks or silly poll-tested slogans.
Perhaps the most powerful factor in Ramaswamy’s appeal is its message. Instead of the usual campaign clichés about tax cuts and fighting crime, Ramaswamy offers a profound critique of what went wrong.
He argues that with the decline of faith, family, and patriotism, Americans have lost their purpose and the nation as a whole has lost its way.
All of his specific proposals are based on this insight — whether it’s requiring young Americans to pass a citizenship test, shutting down much of America’s runaway government bureaucracy, or defending Taiwan from Chinese attacks until America can become self-sufficient in manufacturing the semiconductors that are an integral part of modern life.
I once asked him to outline his plans to “contain” the civil bureaucracy – the “administrative state” as many call it today. He corrected me, “It’s not possible to contain it.” You just have to get rid of it. All of it. Shut it down.’
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy attends Erick Erickson’s conservative political conference “The Gathering” in Atlanta, Georgia
Speaking of a new “American Revolution,” he captures the spirit of rebellion that led to the birth of the country in 1776.
Of course there is criticism.
Some say his entire campaign boils down to “sucking up” Trump and his supporters in order to “inherit” their votes should Donald stumble. And it’s true that after Trump’s second indictment, Ramaswamy was quick to react and, as a precautionary measure, offered him a pardon.
But he puts this into legal principles, arguing that the prosecution itself is illegitimate – a political prosecution under a fabricated legal pretext.
It has also been claimed that Ramaswamy is an “isolationist” because of his promise to end financial support to Ukraine (a position most Americans support). But that is a gross distortion.
Indeed, Ramaswamy’s foreign policy is guided by President Reagan’s mantra of “peace through strength.” He wants to end the war through diplomacy, but stresses the need to sever the dangerous military alliance between Russia and China.
Others have pointed to moments during the campaign when Ramaswamy appeared to entertain conspiracy theories, most recently in connection with 9/11.
Ramaswamy would argue that he was merely pointing out a fact that the US establishment prefers to ignore: the Saudi regime’s role in the attacks.
Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at an event in St. Clair Shores
All of this and much more will be debated tonight in Milwaukee and over the coming months as the campaign unfolds.
One thing is certain, however, that if Vivek Ramaswamy emerges a clear No. 2 behind Donald Trump in the Republican primary, there is a good chance he will win given the numerous risks to his freedom that the former president faces in the coming months.
And if he were the Republican nominee, I have no doubt the energetic and formidable 38-year-old from Ohio would best the increasingly decrepit, ailing 80-year-old incumbent in the White House.
I don’t expect Prime Minister Sunak to make that congratulatory call to President Ramaswamy in a year and a half.
But don’t be surprised. After all, American politics has definitely delivered the unexpected in recent years.
Steve Hilton is a contributor to Fox News Channel.