Vivek Ramaswamy confirms bid for US presidency

Serial biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has launched a bid to become the Republican candidate for the US presidency in the 2024 election.

The 37-year-old fund manager and founder of Roivant and its entourage of ‘vant spin-off companies – who stepped down as chief executive of the company in 2021 after selling off various businesses to Sumitomo Dainippon for $3 billion – announced his bid on Tucker Carlson’s political talk show on Fox News yesterday.

He has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, confirming his intention to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, and formally launching his ‘Vivek2024’ campaign.

So far, the only other confirmed candidate is Nikki Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN under Trump; although, other prominent Republican figures, like ex-vice president Mike Pence, are also expected to step forward.

In his first tweet since the news was announced, Ramaswamy launched an attack on the ‘woke left’ – continuing a theme he has explored in his two books Woke, Inc and Nation of Victims – singling out “Covidism, climatism, and gender ideology” and claiming that “a culture of fear has completely replaced a culture of free speech in America.”

“We’ve celebrated our 'diversity' so much that we forgot all the ways we’re really the same as Americans, bound by ideals that united a divided, headstrong group of people 250 years ago,” he said. “I believe deep in my bones those ideals still exist. I’m running for President to revive them.”

Among the policies laid out in a series of tweets is the end of affirmative action or positive discrimination and climate 'religion' - embracing fossil fuels and nuclear - a 'decoupling' from China, and a ban on social media for the under-16s.

A Financial Times report notes that, with a personal fortune estimated at around $500 million, Ramaswamy can self-fund his candidacy campaign - at least in the initial stages.

The Democratic National Committee had this to say of his bid, which it has bundled with Make America Great Again (MAGA) rhetoric fomented by Trump:

“As Vivek Ramaswamy uses Tucker Carlson’s show to announce his campaign for president, one thing is clear: The race for the MAGA base is getting messier and more crowded by the day. Over the next few months, Republicans are guaranteed to take exceedingly extreme positions on everything, from banning abortion to cutting Social Security and Medicare, and we look forward to continuing to ensure every American knows just how extreme the MAGA agenda is.”