What to Know About Vivek Ramaswamy, the 'Anti-Woke' Entrepreneur Who Just Entered the 2024 Presidential Race

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Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg via Getty Images Vivek Ramaswamy

Conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announced his 2024 bid for the presidency Tuesday evening during an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight and in a subsequent Wall Street Journal editorial.

"To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. That's why I am running for president," Ramaswamy wrote in his op-ed. "I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream — one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence."

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The Ohio native has founded many multibillion-dollar tech and health care companies, after graduating summa cum laude from Harvard and receiving a law degree from Yale, according to his biography page on Strive.com.

"It may seem presumptuous for a 37-year-old political outsider to pursue the highest office in the land, but I am running on a vision for our nation — one that revives merit in every sphere of American life," Ramaswamy wrote in his announcement.

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Ramaswamy has been outspoken against companies using their platforms for social causes and has echoed the views of many far-right Republicans that America's values are in decline, citing critical race theory, self-victimization, and efforts to stop climate change as things that have destroyed the nation's once-shared identity.

In line with those talking points, he's said that Americans' recent focus on diversity only emphasizes people's differences.

In his editorial, Ramaswamy called for securing the border, eliminating affirmative action "across the American economy," and declaring economic independence from China, which he calls "the greatest external threat to America."

He's elaborated on his beliefs through his 2021 New York Times best-selling book, Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam, and his 2022 follow-up, Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.

The views expressed in Ramaswamy's books led the New Yorker to dub him as the "CEO of Anti-Woke, Inc." They also piqued the curiosity of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has since made Ramaswamy a regular guest on his show.

Speaking with Carlson during his campaign announcement, Ramaswamy got riled up discussing so-called "alternative religions" in America — wokeness, affirmative action and environmentalism — that he credits with destroying American culture.

"We need to take the most sacred cows of these alternative secular religions and, I'm sorry to say this, take them to the slaughter house," he said.

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Ramaswamy is the latest politician to announce his run in the GOP primary following former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who announced her candidacy last Tuesday.

Haley, 51, served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump, from January 2017 until her resignation in December 2018. Trump, 76, announced his own 2024 run back in November during a speech at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.