Vivek Ramaswamy

The son of Indian immigrants — his father a General Electric engineer and his mother a geriatric psychiatrist — Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati. He attended Harvard for undergrad and then Yale Law. He made his name first by becoming a successful biotech entrepreneur and developing medicines, including five drugs that became FDA-approved. More recently, after writing two books and traveling the country, he started Strive, a new asset management firm that competes against the likes of BlackRock but differentiates itself by telling companies to stay out of politics. He first considered pursuing elected office in 2021, when he weighed making a bid for Senate in his home state of Ohio. He eventually chose not to. On his 20-stop tour for his book “Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam.” Ramaswamy speculated that if he were to jump in the '24 GOP presidential race and start polling well, DeSantis might reconsider running. Ramaswamy’s growing campaign team now consists of nearly 20 people, including former Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Kathy Barnette to lead his potential grassroots efforts and Tricia McLaughlin, who led communications for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s 2022 reelection campaign, as his press secretary. He’s hired Republican operative Rex Elsass’ political consultancy, based near Ramaswamy’s home in central Ohio, to run his potential operation, and Elsass’ top deputy Ben Yoho is expected to serve as “CEO” of any future campaign. Ramaswamy put $25.6 million of his own money into his presidential campaign, in loans and contributions, before departing the race after coming in fourth place in Iowa. At the end of December 2023, his campaign had $1.5 million left. A super PAC backing him raised $8.7 million and spent nearly all of it.