Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech millionaire running against Trump, is a former Harvard rapper and son of Indian immigrant campaigning on 'anti-woke' credentials

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 03, 2023.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

• Vivek Ramaswamy announced his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination in February 2023.
• The biotech entrepreneur, who is the son of Indian immigrants, was Harvard and Yale-educated.
• He became a conservative firebrand after writing anti-woke books and regularly appearing on Fox News.

Vivek Ramaswamy might not have a background in politics, but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the first candidates to announce their run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, behind only former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The biotech millionaire, who was once the CEO of Roivant, has somewhat struggled for exposure in a crowded field for the Republican nomination, but his past shows he isn't afraid of a challenge.

Ramaswamy is the son of immigrants from India, was an overachiever at school, and even had a short-lived rap career while at Harvard.

Though his campaign is picking up a little steam, he's still a longshot for the GOP nomination. But the conservative firebrand says he has big plans to start a "cultural movement."

Here's what there is to know about Ramaswamy.

The son of Indian immigrants, he was born and raised in Ohio

The skyline of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Getty Images

Ramaswamy was born on August 9, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to parents who had immigrated to the US from Kerala, India.

He was raised in a traditional Hindu family but attended a Catholic high school.

Sources: The Times of India, The Harvard Crimson

 

At school, he was considered an overachiever

Eugene Kim/WikiMedia Commons

Ramaswamy graduated top of his class at St. Xavier High School, a private prep school on the outskirts of Cincinnati, where he was a nationally ranked junior tennis player.

He also spent his time playing the piano for Alzheimer's patients.

Sources: Forbes, The Times of India

Ramaswamy has an Ivy League education

Charles Krupa/AP

He attended Harvard College, where he graduated summa cum laude with a major in biology.

While at Harvard, he was chair of the university's political union. He told The Harvard Crimson at the time that he considered himself to be a "contrarian" who liked to argue.

Academically, he thrived. The summary of his senior thesis on the ethics of creating human-animal chimeras was published in The New York Times.

Sources: The Harvard Crimson, Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans

At Harvard, he also moonlighted as a rapper

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Ramaswamy would dress entirely in black and take to the stage as his rapper alter ego "Da Vek" during his college days, according to The Harvard Crimson.

The student publication said he rapped "libertarian prose with the utmost of ease."

In an interview with the publication in 2006, Ramaswamy also said that Eminem's "Lose Yourself" was his life's theme song.

Source: The Harvard Crimson

 

When he wasn't rapping, he was setting up a business

Lisa Lake/Getty Images

In 2007, Ramaswamy co-founded StudentBusinesses.com, a resource for college-age entrepreneurs. It was acquired by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2009.

Source: Pitchbook

 

Ramaswamy then became a successful Wall Street analyst

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

He worked at QVT Financial, a Wall Street hedge fund manager, from 2007 to 2014.

Successful trades and his knowledge of the potential of certain drugs quickly impressed his bosses, leading to Ramaswamy becoming a partner at just 28 years old.

Source: Forbes

He also attended Yale Law School on the side, befriending J.D. Vance

Gaelen Morse/Getty Images

While working at QVT Financial, Ramaswamy attended Yale Law School for "the intellectual experience," a former professor of his told Forbes.

At Yale, he became friends with J.D. Vance, the "Hillbilly Elegy" author turned senator for Ohio. He also met his future wife, Apoorva, with whom he now has two children.

They got married in 2015.

Source: The New Yorker

Ramaswamy left QVT Financial to start his own pharmaceutical firm

Lisa Lake/Getty Images

He decided to leave QVT Financial to set up Roivant, his pharmaceutical venture, in 2014.

Ramaswamy raised approximately $93 million from investors, among them his former employer.

The idea behind Roivant was to develop drugs that other pharmaceutical companies had abandoned.

The company started with a modest 10 employees but it soon took off.  In 2017, it raised $1.1 billion from an investor group led by SoftBank Vision Fund — one of the largest funding rounds for a life sciences company. 

Ramaswamy would later be named by Forbes as one of America's richest entrepreneurs under 40, and would make it onto the publication's prestigious 30 under 30 list.

Sources: Insider, The New Yorker

He canceled his honeymoon to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Ramaswamy and his wife were meant to be honeymooning in the French and Swiss Alps in June 2015, but instead he brought his new bride with him to ring the fabled bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Ramaswamy led Roivant to a $315 million IPO in 2015, the biggest biotech IPO at that time.

Source: Forbes

But the honeymoon period for his business ended with a 'humiliating' failure

BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters

Roivant acquired one of its first drugs, an experimental Alzheimer's medication called intepirdine, from GlaxoSmithKline in 2014 for $5 million.

In 2017, the drug failed clinical trials, eventually leading to the discontinuation of its development.

Ramaswamy told The New Yorker that the failure was "humiliating" and that he took it really hard.

The company initially pivoted to gene therapies after the Alzheimer's drug tanked, and now appears to be focusing on medications for psoriasis and dermatitis.

Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO in January 2021, saying he wanted to spend more time writing books and focusing on his political interests.

Sources: The New York Times, The New Yorker, Insider, Roivant

He released "Woke, Inc," and another book slamming identity politics

Fox News

In August 2021, Ramaswamy released a book, "Woke Inc," which became a New York Times bestseller.

The book slammed the so-called "modern woke-industrial complex," which Ramaswamy describes as the mixing of morality with consumerism.

He released another book in September 2022, "Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence," which was a critique of identity politics in America.

Sources: Center Street, The New Yorker

 

And he also became a conservative firebrand, regularly appearing on Fox News

Fox News

Ramaswamy has appeared regularly on Fox News, has written op-eds for a variety of publications, and made speaking engagements; gaining him a reputation as a conservative firebrand.

His controversial views on "wokeism" made him some enemies, with Ramaswamy telling The New Yorker that a family member and close friend no longer speak to him because of his conservative positions.

Source: The New Yorker

 

He's previously toyed with entering politics, and discussed with Kevin McCarthy

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Ramaswamy said he once met with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, then the House Minority Leader, and spoke to him about getting involved in Republican Party politics.

He told the New Yorker that McCarthy had advised him that could have more impact as a thought leader for the GOP than as a junior congressman.

Ramaswamy considered running to be Ohio's senator in 2022 but ultimately decided against it.

Sources: Cincinnati Business Courier, The New Yorker

And now he's joined what is likely to be a crowded field of GOP candidates for president in 2024

BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters

Ramaswamy announced that he's running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on February 21, 2023, while appearing on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

He said in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that by running he was hoping to launch a "cultural movement to create a new American dream" based on the "pursuit of excellence."

In response to his candidacy, the Democratic National Committee issued a statement saying that Ramaswamy's appearance on Tucker Carlson's show to announce his campaign showed that the "race for the MAGA base is getting messier and more crowded by the day."

Sources: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal

 

He got 1% in CPAC's straw poll of 2024 contenders. But said he was offered a second-place finish if he paid lots of money.

Vivek Ramaswamy on Fox Business

Fox Business via @VivekGRamaswamy/Twitter

Appearing on Fox Business on March 7, 2023, Ramaswamy alleged that a consultant called his campaign shortly after he declared his candidacy to make him an offer.

Ramaswamy claimed that the consultant, who he did not name, said he could get him second place on the Conservative Political Action Conference's (CPAC) straw poll if he paid a "few hundred thousand dollars."

Ramaswamy said he turned down the offer.

He ultimately received just 1% of the vote in the unscientific straw poll of potential Republican primary candidates, with former President Donald Trump coming first.

Source: Insider

In April 2023, Ramaswamy took credit for the firing of CNN's Don Lemon

Win McNamee/Getty Images

After CNN dismissed news anchor Don Lemon in April 2023, Ramaswamy took some credit for his firing.

Ramaswamy had appeared on "CNN This Morning" to defend a controversial speech he made at a NRA event. The conversation quickly turned into a heated argument, with Lemon accusing Ramswamy of trying to explain Black history to him.

According to The New York Times, the incident left several CNN leaders fed up, which contributed to Lemon's dismissal.

Days later, Ramaswamy told SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly that he thought he played a part in getting Lemon fired.

"And I think that that's a net positive," he said.

Sources: The New York Times, Mediaite

This summer, he performed a freestyle rap on TV. It didn't go too well.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Asked about his not-so-secret college rapping career, Ramaswamy entertained viewers of Fox News' "Fox & Friends" in July with a few bars of freestyle rap.

He rapped: "My name's Vivek, it rhymes with cake. It ain't about thee, it isn't about me, it is about the, the United States is about liberty, so 'Fox & Friends' join us on the trail, we'll have some fun, I'll see you out the trail."

As Insider's Madison Hall put it, it didn't go well.

He also said China can invade Taiwan if the US gets semiconductor independence.

Paul Sancya/AP Photo

In August, Ramaswamy said he would let China invade Taiwan so long as the US had enough semiconductors.

Speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Ramaswamy said that if he becomes president he would ensure that the US is no longer reliant on Taiwan for its supply of the electrical component.

Taiwan dominates the manufacturing of semiconductors, which are crucial to making smartphones and electric cars, with the Asian country producing about 60% of the world's supply.

"And after that, our commitments to Taiwan, our commitments to be willing to go to military conflict, will change after that, because that's rationally in our self-interest," he said. 

Ramaswamy added: "I am not going to send our sons and daughters to die over that conflict. And that's consistent with my position on Ukraine as well."

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