Tech entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy announced Tuesday that he was entering the 2024 presidential race, becoming the third Republican to do so.
In a video on Twitter, Ramaswamy, 37, said that he was running for president to eliminate the "national identity crisis" he claims was caused by "new secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism, and gender ideology."
"We've celebrated our 'diversity' so much that we forgot all the ways we're really the same as Americans," Ramaswamy said, adding, "I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I'm running for president to revive them."
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In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal accompanying his announcement, Ramaswamy wrote, "The Republican Party's top priority should be to fill this void with an inspiring national identity that dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance."
"I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream," he added. Ramaswamy also wrote that he would eliminate affirmative action, remove civil service protections for federal workers, and secure the border.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy co-founded a technology company in 2014 and has since written two books against the "woke movement." He has "made a name for himself in right-wing circles by opposing corporate efforts to advance political, social, and environmental causes," The New York Times notes.
Ramaswamy's agenda has made him a popular figure among the Republican elite, and a recent profile in The New Yorker called him "the CEO of Anti-Woke Inc."
However, The Associated Press called his candidacy a "longshot bid," given that Ramaswamy has entered a crowded GOP field that already includes former President Donald Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, with more Republicans expected to run.
