WASHINGTON — Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy biotech entrepreneur and investor and the author of "Woke, Inc.," has entered the Republican race for president.
In a video released Tuesday night, Ramaswamy, 37, formally launched his longshot bid by decrying what he called a "national identity crisis" that he claims is driven by a left-wing ideology that has replaced "faith, patriotism and hard work" with "new secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology."
"We have obsessed so much over our diversity and our difference that we forgot all the ways we're really just the same as Americans," he says.
In a Wall Street Journal editorial published at the same time, he pledged to repeal civil service protections for federal workers if he wins, as well as work to eliminate affirmative action, including directing the Justice Department to prosecute "illegal race-based preferences."
Born in Cincinnati, Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, founded a biotechnology company before becoming the partner of a hedge fund. He is the author of the books "Woke, Inc." and "Nation of Victims" and gained stature in conservative circles for his criticism of the environmental, social and corporate governance movement that aims to promote socially responsible investing.
Ramaswamy enters what is expected to be a crowded Republican field that already includes former President Donald Trump and his former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. No Ohioan has been elected to the White House since Warren G. Harding in 1920.