The quixotic and sometimes chaotic quest for the presidency by Cincinnati native Vivek Ramaswamy went up in smoke in the frozen tundra of Iowa in the state's GOP caucuses Monday.
Only 8,449 Iowa Republicans managed to defy the snow-covered highways and the 20-below wind chill to make it to an Iowa caucus site to cast their votes for the 38-year-old Ramaswamy, who amassed a fortune in the biotech business when he was barely out of college.
About 31,000 votes less than what he would have needed last fall to be elected to a seat on his hometown's City Council.
After stumping in all of Iowa's 99 counties — not once but twice — 7.7% was all the support he could muster. Far behind the second and third place finishers, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, respectively; and miles behind Donald Trump, who has well over 50% of the caucus vote in a state he lost eight years ago to Ted Cruz.
Cruz bad-mouthed Trump in that 2016 campaign, but, after this year's Iowa caucuses, he endorsed Trump — the same Donald Trump who, eight years ago, insulted Cruz's wife and falsely suggested Cruz's father was somehow involved in the assassination of JFK.
Well, Ramaswamy never bad-mouthed Trump, as both DeSantis and Haley did in this Iowa race.
Instead, he packed his bag Monday night and high-tailed it to New Hampshire, where Trump was holding a victory rally.
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There, Ramaswamy bolted onto the stage, announced the suspension of his candidacy, and, in a fiery, high decibel speech, praised Trump to high heaven and pledged his loyalty to Trump.
I'm not sure what Ramaswamy plans to do with himself now that he is no longer a presidential candidate — he wouldn't return my calls — but I am certain of one thing: he will not be Donald Trump's running mate this fall.
Trump does not ordinarily play well with others — especially others who upstage him at his own campaign event. Which is exactly what Ramaswamy did.
Mark Weaver, a long-time Republican strategist in Ohio, says Ramaswamy is "very adept at speaking to conservatives and is very smart."
"But what he lacks is the wisdom that comes with experience," Weaver said. "If you gave him some experience and wisdom, he would be a formidable candidate."
But, Weaver said, Trump doesn't need Ramaswamy to be his "attack dog."
"Donald Trump is his own attack dog; he doesn't need any help," Weaver said. "Vivek needs to be more deferential to Trump. He overshadowed Trump at the event in New Hampshire. He has to understand his bounds."
Four days before the Iowa caucuses, I was interviewed by the host of a midday show on Iowa Public Radio called "River to River."
The host wanted an Ohio politics reporter to talk about Ramaswamy from an Ohio perspective.
I talked a little about the biographical stuff:
- Son of immigrants from India who settled in Cincinnati and became successful in their fields.
- Their son went to a Hindu school in Dayton and ended up at Cincinnati's top Jesuit high school, St. Xavier, where he was valedictorian in 2003.
- Earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Harvard and a law degree from Yale.
- Was a millionaire entrepreneur before he left college.
- Didn't vote in an election until 2020, when he registered in Columbus, where he and his wife and kids make their home today.
But the one point that I wanted to make loud and clear was this:
Vivek Ramaswamy, after nearly a solid year of campaigning from one end of Iowa to the other and appearing in debates where his shouting and finger-point style got under the skin of his rivals, who ended up hating him, is far better known to Iowa voters than he is to voters in his home state of Ohio.
The host seemed to be surprised by that.
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But it is true. If you don't believe me, ask 10 random strangers on the Main Street of your Ohio town if they knew who Vivek Ramaswamy was before his presidential run.
He is just not a household name in Ohio, even in Republican households. Maybe someday. But not this day.
Cincinnati native Tim Mulvey, a 2001 graduate of St. Xavier High School, was communications director for the U.S. House Select Committee which investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
That committee found that Trump's claims that the election was stolen directly provoked his supporters to storm the Capitol building that day.
Ramaswamy's oft-repeated claim, without a shred of proof, that the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol was an "inside job" infuriated Mulvey.
"It is those kind of lies that led to what happened on Jan. 6 in the first place," Mulvey said. "That is the kind of talk that sets the stage for even more violence."
Ramaswamy, Mulvey said, is "dangerous" because of his conspiratorial beliefs and his "extremist" positions on a wide range of issues.
"This is not a Republican or Democratic thing," Mulvey said. "This guy is way outside the mainstream of American politics."
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Still, though, Ramaswamy has his fans among Ohio Republicans.
Alex Triantafilou, the Ohio Republican Party chairman and former GOP chair in Hamilton County, was an early supporter of Ramaswamy when he first started making "anti-woke" speeches.
Triantafilou, in a text message, said "we certainly have not heard the last from Vivek Ramaswamy.
"His emergence on the national stage as a supremely talented conservative communicator is to the long-term benefit of the Republican Party," Triantafilou said. "I look forward to watching him rise."
But the question is, rise to what?
Weaver said he doesn't see him as a vice presidential candidate on Trump's ticket.
"If Trump is elected president again, I would think [Ramaswamy] might be interested in one of the high-profile cabinet jobs," Weaver said. "Like treasury or secretary of state."
David B. Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron, thinks Ramaswamy's chance of being the vice presidential candidate are slim to none.
"Donald Trump is never going to pick someone who ran against him," Cohen said. "Ramaswamy has no problem being a Trump lackey and campaigning for him, but not as his running mate."
Clearly, a 38-year old Republican who has run for president only four years after becoming a voter aims high. And that has led to speculation that he might be interested in running for Ohio governor.
It seems a far-fetched idea. The Ohio Statehouse is crawling with high-profile Republicans who are already lining up to replace Mike DeWine as governor in 2026.
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"The notion that he is going to come back to Ohio and leapfrog over a lot of people to get into the governor's office just doesn't make a lot of sense," Cohen said.
Or, maybe he just wants to keep making money and be the right wing's favorite anti-woke podcaster and king of TikTok.
In the end, Cohen said, "Ramaswamy is all about self-promotion. He's a salesman selling himself."
