There are few substitutions for getting to know someone other than, well, getting to know them. And one of the best ways to do that is simply to spend time with them.
One of the most difficult things for Iowa voters to decipher during a caucus cycle is who is being real and who isn’t. Before we’ll even consider someone’s policies, we need to figure out their authenticity.
After all, what good are their policies if we cannot trust them?
But during the 2024 caucus cycle, I have noticed an unwillingness among more Iowans than usual when it comes to even giving candidates a chance. They are more willing than ever to take something they read on the internet or saw on the TV and treat it as gospel.
Those folks are squandering the advantage they have of living in Iowa. We do not need to rely on internet stories, YouTube videos or TV commercials to tell us about a candidate. We can literally go and meet them. We can listen to them. We can look them in the eye. We can make our determination on whether they are real without any outside influence.
I’ll be honest, I’m just as skeptical of people as anyone. I remember in 2010 I attended an event with Brenna Bird and Rick Santorum. Left on my windshield was a flyer about Santorum and something to do with abortion and how he wasn’t who he said he was on that issue.
So when Santorum ran for President in 2012, he was the first person I crossed off my list. However, because I was willing to meet him, listen to him and research, he emerged as my top pick for that election.
Since then I have tried to make it a point to at least see people wanting to serve in person one time.
Last December, when Vivek Ramaswamy spoke at America Fest, I had no clue who he was. And from the moment he began speaking, I essentially tuned him out. Young guy. Know it all. Speaks like Obama — all the things many others say now.
And the first couple of times I saw him in Iowa it was similar. I would listen, kind of. But I wasn’t convinced he was being himself.
I mean, he received the Soros scholarship, had the World Economic Forum thing, wasn’t a Republican all his life — there were reasons not to give the guy a chance. But then I did something radical — I asked him about these things.
It wasn’t until I interviewed him at a local Pizza Ranch and saw him interact with his son and wife that I thought to myself maybe he is who he seems.
Maybe he’s just articulate.
Maybe he’s just intelligent.
Maybe he’s just a concerned American.
Maybe he’s just a father and husband.
Maybe he’s human.
On Saturday I was able to tag along with his campaign for a few stops in Northwest Iowa. I wanted to get more than a campaign appearance version of Vivek. I wanted to see, as best I could, who he is when he isn’t in front of the media, cameras or voters.
Here is what I observed…
His first stop of the day was at the Faith and Family event in Sioux Center with Congressman Randy Feenstra. The event took place on the campus of Dordt University. After he spoke, a group of about 15-20 football players went to Vivek’s booth. They took a picture and waited for him to return, not knowing for sure if he would.
When he arrived, Vivek was told to take the conversation outside because it was interfering with the feed as Nikki Haley was on stage. Once outside, Vivek asked the students about their majors and what year they were in school. He offered some “unsolicited advice” as well.
He told them there is a culture that wants them to “shut up, sit down and do as they are told.”
“I think that that’s actually an opportunity,” he said. “My formula for success, certainly in the business world and I’m using now in politics as well is, if you’ve got a pack that’s running in one direction, go in the other direction and just make sure you’re right and don’t look back. In the short run, that’s pretty hard. Truth is the slogan of the campaign. In the short run, people don’t want to hear the truth. People want to hear what everybody else is telling them.”
Ramaswamy said if you care about someone, you’ll tell them the truth. If you care about yourself, you’ll tell them what they want to hear.
He discussed his business successes. He informed the students about the ESG movement and how large firms are using retirees’ money to tell companies and shareholders to adopt social and political agendas. Yet he went against that.
Vivek told them if they’re going in a direction that doesn’t feel a little bit uncomfortable, they’re not doing it right.
“It better feel uncomfortable,” he said. “You’d better be taking some arrows for doing it. If you’re not, that means you actually think you’re being independent but you’re really probably just following the pack in the short run. But in the long run, people need to be led. And so, whether it’s business or politics or academia or anything else, that would be my two cents from my experience that I would share with you guys.”
The students were as tuned in as I’ve ever seen students to a “politician.” After Ramaswamy joked he would’ve lifted with them had he known about their workout, he was challenged to pushups.
He and another student did 30 pushups.
Finally, he also told the students they should attend the caucus, even if they weren’t going to vote for him.
Following the impromptu life lesson for college kids and media availability, it was back to the bus. There was discussion about what to do with the time between campaign stops. A brief debate over finding some good Mexican food or returning to the event to meet with voters lasted a handful of seconds — maybe.
He went back to talk with more voters as the event had finished. College student after college student pledged their support. Vivek will have to wait and see if that shows up on Jan. 15.
When he returned to his bus, he immediately checked in with his oldest son, Karthik. He inquired if the program Karthik was tuned into on his device was the one that had math problems in it.
“Yes it is,” he was told.
“Find more that have math problems in them,” Ramaswamy said. “That’ll keep him engaged.”
After spending a few minutes with Karthik, I was able to ask Ramaswamy a couple of questions about his campaign. I didn’t want to know about his policy positions or how he felt about one of his GOP rivals. I wanted to know about him and his family.
We started by asking Karthik if he knew what Vivek was doing for his career.
“Am I running for something,” Vivek asked.
“President,” Karthik said.
“Where does the President live,” Vivek asked.
“The White House,” Karthik said.
“What city is that in,” Vivek asked.
“Um, Washington D.C.,” Karthik said.
“And what does the President do,” Vivek asked.
“Um, I don’t know,” Karthik responded.
“Well, that’s a good question. I think a lot of other people don’t know either,” Vivek said.
Vivek said it was important to run for President as a family. Apoorva, his wife, had events in other parts of Iowa on Saturday. She helps as much as she can while also working as a throat surgeon. Whenever Vivek talks about her, you can sense his pride in what she does and why she does it.
“We’re laying it all on the table as a family,” he said.
We asked him how doing it as a family has worked out in practice.
“The physical piece of it is less challenging,” he said. “Although it’s no small feat to have our two boys here, raising them, Apoorva her full-time job as a throat surgeon which she has continued out of her sense of duty for many of the patients who rely on her, and for me to be, you know, I think doing this at a scale that’s not half-hearted. We’ve done more events than any other candidate in this race. We’re doing the Full Grassley times two. I don’t believe in doing something half-hearted.”
Vivek said the challenging part of the race is the gap between what is true and what is told.
“That I think can be exhausting at times, but I also think that’s also part of why good people do not go into this sport. I do think that the game is the game, you’ve got to be willing to play it if you want to change this country,” he said. “So that’s exactly what I’m doing in this race, breaking that game by trying to play it differently than every other candidate.”
We asked Vivek if he recalled the first time in his life he thought he might like to be the President.
“It’s really funny. There surfaced, in our family, an old essay from when I was like, it was an assignment when I was in first or second grade,” he said. “It was a story of how a second-grader became President. We read that story, my parents were cracking up. It’s a story about a second-grader who goes to the White House and then there is a lot that he has to do and he decides that the second-grader doesn’t want to be a President anymore and he leaves. That was the earliest evidence we have.”
More seriously, Vivek said the idea first came to him after his first book tour. He was then interrupted by a spontaneous hug from Karthik.
After asking if Karthik is a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals or Cleveland Browns, and hearing the explanation, Vivek returned to the interview.
“I stepped down from my job as a biotech CEO, and I talked about this in Woke Inc. after, you know, there were BLM protests across this country, pressure on every CEO to take a stand on that issue,” he said. “I refused to side with BLM. It’s not my job to use our platform as a CEO or anything else as a biotech company to weigh in on some political debate in favor of BLM, especially when I had personal values that didn’t align with that. So I stepped down from that job.”
He stepped down in 2021 and initially didn’t want to have an agenda.
“Once you make a plan, even if it’s your own personal plan, you become a prisoner to that plan,” he said. “So I stepped down to speak my mind freely.”
One week after stepping down as CEO, former U.S. Sen. Rob Portman announced he would not seek re-election. Immediately people wondered if Vivek knew that was going to happen and that was why he resigned as CEO.
“It was just a total coincidence, but it made me pause for a second and think about whether I wanted to drive change, say as a U.S. Senator or otherwise,” he said.
As he learned about the job of a senator, he decided against it. Considering his role as CEO, it made sense.
“I didn’t want to have an agenda,” he said. “Even in those few weeks that I was thinking about that U.S. Senate run, I could immediately feel a constriction.”
Vivek was in the middle of writing a book and was often asking himself if he should write what he wanted because it might impact his ability to serve in politics.
“I didn’t want to go through that so I hung the jersey up on politics for the three weeks I considered that,” he said. “I decided I’m going to write this book without any constraint and then just see where this takes me. And that was liberating. Actually, I’m grateful for that year. It helped me discover many of my beliefs with greater conviction than I probably had in my heart but I wasn’t taking the time to think about as a CEO. So I wrote that book, Woke Inc. I’m on that book tour after the book comes out. And it is jarring, flattering sure, but jarring when you have multiple people who you’ve never met as you’re going to different parts of the country that line up afterwards and say you should run for U.S. President. If it happens once or twice, fine, but if that’s a consistent pattern — it’s probably the first time I began to think about it.”
Vivek said what started as one book became three books throughout those couple of years. And then he gained clarity on how he wanted to drive change by starting a company.
He started Strive to compete directly against Blackrock in the ESG movement, to fight the movement, and suggest companies not focus on environmental or social agendas.
“Strive became something of a success pretty quickly out of the gate,” he said. “But one of the things I came to the realization around, this was after the Red Wave that never came last November, I was watching this as a business leader and as a private citizen, was that the head of the snake was still the bureaucracy of the federal government.”
The Republican Party failed, he said, in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023.
“I can’t just be a passive bystander,” he said. “When over the course of the three books and the journey that I had been on over those several years at that point, I do have a vision for this country. I do have a vision of what it means to be an American. I do have a vision of the role that it takes for business leaders with the courage to do their part. But also the ultimate role that it takes for a leader of this nation to stand for our national values. To revive our missing national identity. And I squinted to try to see that in other candidates who were the prominently named potential presidential candidates.
“And I badly, for a while, wanted to see that in another leader to be able to get behind them because we were living the ideal version of our life. And so that would’ve been the easier thing for me to do. Squint as I may, I did not see that in this country. I saw a vacuum of somebody who is going to stand for our own national identity and who we are. And I couldn’t then look myself in the mirror and say that I was doing my fullest part without actually going the distance and making the sacrifices needed to not only run for U.S. President but hopefully to lead this country for the next eight years after.”
The son of immigrants, Ramaswamy is running for President at a young age — 38. And as the son of immigrants who came to America without much, what was the reaction of his parents to the news that their son was seeking the job of Commander-in-Chief?
“The only person I asked for true permission was my wife,” Vivek said. “Nobody else had a veto on it. I think if they did have a veto they probably would have exercised it. Not from any sense other than I think probably protective instincts as a parent, right? They came to this country with nothing. At this point, right when we’ve achieved their dream for what they would’ve wanted their kids to have in life — two young boys, financial security, success in our own domain, pride, Apoorva saving lives every day, they’re incredibly proud of her for what she does as well — and to say that you want to, as they see it, probably as many people see it, ruin your life over this dirty, poisoned arena of politics — why? Leave that to other people. You can still drive positive change and live a good life. A life that we came halfway around the world for our kids to be able to one day enjoy.
“But for me, actually, that same reason was my motivation to do it. This country has allowed us to live a dream that my parents never would have imagined, we would’ve never imagined even when we were kids growing up. And you know, it wasn’t always easy, a straight path for us. I’ve talked a little bit about some of the struggles my dad faced at GE when they went through mass layoffs in the plant in Evandale, Ohio where he worked for his entire career. And that gives me a sense of gratitude and obligation to this country. That, I couldn’t be a passive bystander and just idly watch this country decay without doing my part to pass on the American Dream to these kids and their generation either. That’s the hard truth.”
Vivek returned to spending time with Karthik on the remainder of the drive from Sioux Center to Sibley. Then he cut a video on his thoughts regarding the abortion issue.
When the bus arrived in Sibley, he was given a plate of food from the salad bar at Pizza Ranch to sneak in a lunch. After a handful of bites, he was ready to go.
Karthik led him off the bus and was greeted by one of the people there to see his dad make his presidential pitch.
About 45 people packed into the room on the side of the Pizza Ranch — and about 10 more flowed out from the back into the hallway. Vivek delivered a version of his typical stump speech. After about 10 or 15 minutes, he was ready for questions.
Throughout the speech he hit heavy topics, often soliciting head nods from the audience. He touched on the issues others don’t, promising to pardon non-violent Jan. 6 protestors, a pardon for President Donald J. Trump (if he needs it), bring an end to the Ukraine war and get an accounting for how American money was spent in the conflict, exposing the climate change agenda as a hoax, declaring eminent domain for CO2 pipelines in Iowa unconstitutional and illegal.
“Why am I the only candidate who is able to say these things,” he asked. “Here’s the answer, it’s because every politician dances to the tune of their biggest donor. And in my case that biggest donor is me.”
If people want someone in office who will speak truth to power, then they need to vote for someone who will speak the truth to them.
“That’s what we’re doing every day in this campaign — speaking the truth not just when it’s easy but when it’s hard,” he said. “Speaking the truth not just to the other side but to our own tribe, our own party, right here at home in the Republican Party. The things I’m saying are controversial not because they are false, but because they are true.”
More head nods.
During the Q&A, a local pastor asked him to address the issue many Iowans have with his candidacy — his faith.
Vivek was asked if Jesus is Lord. He responded with his typical answer on faith, noting that as a Hindu, he stands for shared values with Christians. He also noted that God chose Cyrus to lead the Jews back to the Promised Land.
He said he does believe it is his responsibility to make faith, family, hard work and patriotism “cool again in the country.”
Vivek said he will not spread Christianity across the country as President because he isn’t the best person to do that but also because he doesn’t believe that is the job of the President.
“I think the job of the U.S. President is to swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution and to keep it,” he said. “And we have been doing an awful job of standing for both of those things, including so-called conservatives, including Christian conservatives and otherwise.”
Vivek said his faith has led him to this journey. He believes what separates him is the ability to bring sharp elbows to the fight as well as a strong understanding of the Constitution and the values that America was founded on.
“Those two things don’t usually go together,” he said. “I believe God puts each of us here for a purpose. And late last year, it was that calling that pulled me into this race and we will be guided by our purpose to stand for the shared values — yes, the Judeo-Christian values that this nation was founded on. And if I swear an oath to the Constitution, if you all put me in position to do that, I intend to keep it because I believe that is my purpose here.”
We asked the pastor how he thought Vivek handled the question.
“I think he has the fear of God in him, which is good because he is going to make good, conscionable choices based on that,” the pastor said.
The pastor thought it was odd that Vivek professed to believe in one God was interesting since Hinduism is not a monotheistic religion. But, his religion is not disqualifying to be President.
“That did not impact whether or not I’m going to vote for him,” he said. “I just wanted to hear if he had the fear of God in him, and I believe he does. Even though I disagree with him on who that God is.”
If there was no fear of God, then the pastor said he would rule Vivek out of his consideration. And he appreciated Vivek’s willingness to address those religious aspects.
“Like he said, he could have changed his name, he could have pretended to be a Christian because I think a lot of people do that when they run for office,” he said. “I appreciate that he is honest about that because a lot of people claim to be Christian, but then every policy that they pass shows that they don’t fear God, that they don’t know the Bible and that they don’t care. I believe he genuinely cares about getting things right.”
What policies does the pastor care about?
“Pro-life. People are tired of children getting murdered in this country,” he said. “So that is one of the most important ones. And people want the end of corruption in Washington because people are sick and tired of paying through their teeth in taxes and getting empty promises. This nation is at a terrible point. Even from a week ago the cost of groceries have gone up in my own house. People want change, they want change that he is selling.”
So, where is the pastor now on the race? Vivek is one of two candidates he is considering. The other?
“Trump,” he said. “I’ve got to pray about it, read some more, and think about it.”
The pastor said he liked Nikki Haley when she worked for Trump, but she has since lost her integrity.
During the event Vivek was asked about his claim that Haley is corrupt by a woman who wanted to understand why he said that.
Vivek laid it all out…
He said Haley rewarded pharmaceutical companies who allowed her to use a private jet with special contracts. She’s done “hundreds of millions of dollars” of special favors for Boeing who went on to join the board of Boeing after doing those favors. He took issue with her claim of being an accountant since she didn’t pass the CPA.
Haley was “literally broke” when she left the UN, Ramaswamy said.
“In a few short years, starts a military contracting firm, makes a lot of money as a military contractor, joins the board of Boeing, makes a lot of money that way. Gives secretive speeches to foreign actors, just like Hillary Clinton did, which I criticized Hillary for. Makes millions, sometimes seven-figure speeches, but to foreign actors. Why do they want to do that with the former ambassador to the UN?
“And, what do you know, just like Biden and just like Hillary Clinton is a millionaire. That math doesn’t add up.”
Vivek said he cannot stand hypocrisy. And, he added, in 2016 Haley joined “anti-Tumpers” who called on Trump to release his tax returns.
“Yet now running for President has not released tax returns and I think owest it to the people of this country to release the clients of her own military contractor,” Vivek said. “That appears to be making money off of the war in Ukraine, or the possibility of escalated war.
“So, whether it’s Joe Biden who is sending $200 billion of our aid to Ukraine because they paid his son a $5 million bribe or a Republican version of the same that’s inclined to do it because their military contracting firm makes more money as a result, that’s corruption. And it exists in both parties. If somebody is being propped up by the person — the founder of LinkedIn — who is funding the lawsuits to keep Trump off the ballot, is one of the largest donors to Nikki Haley. So I don’t care if you have an R or a D after your name. That’s where I’m a little bit different. I’m not one of the people who says let’s just train our fire on Biden. I don’t even criticize Biden that much anymore because I don’t think he’s the President. He’s really not. He’s a puppet for the managerial class of these special interests. But that’s a bipartisan affair. And then, when it affects our policy, like our foreign policy, as I believe it does, then I have a real problem. So, that’s why I said what I said.”
As is typical, Vivek won over a couple of high school students who attended. Both are seniors.
“I think he knows the truth, he speaks the truth,” Jacob said. “I think he just needs a little bit more exposure and I think he’s the man for the Oval Office.”
Gavin said Vivek is a “good guy” and he will caucus for him.
“We have watched debates and we’ve watched other candidates and we think Vivek is the man for the job,” Jacob reiterated. “He speaks for the benefit of the Americans.”
Abortion and education are two important issues, along with the debt.
“Him being a CEO, he will do a good job of starting from zero as he says and working that way up,” Jacob said. “Keeping us out of wars and doing what’s right for the country.”
After pictures and mingling with voters — and the media — it was back on the bus and back to his kids. There wasn’t as much time between stops, so he took care of the kids and took a call before getting to Primghar.
It was another stop at another Pizza Ranch. And another full room with about 40-50 people in attendance.
Vivek received high praise for his plan to cut the federal bureaucracy’s workforce. For those who walked into the event favoring a different candidate, they walked out with more to think about — at least that is what a couple of voters told me.
Before leaving Vivek received a word of prayer from one of the attendees.
He also had a conversation with a state legislator who was there, thanking them for working to stop the use of eminent domain for the carbon capture pipelines. This state legislator has already endorsed a presidential candidate, though, and Vivek just asks them to consider who is standing up and speaking out for the private property rights of Iowa landowners — considering the candidate they endorsed is “undecided” on the issue.
It’s a brief, direct and mutually appreciated conversation that was fair and to the point. We’ll see what happens with that legislator — who told Vivek he is his No. 2 behind the person he endorsed. But, there’s still five weeks, Vivek was told.
Back to the bus, a few minutes behind, but well worth it. Vivek’s youngest son, Arjun, was able to play with toys and games in the arcade area of the Pizza Ranch. Karthik was awake from his nap.
Vivek was back to the role of father. And was encouraging more math once again.
On this bus ride the conversation was more casual. It was less of an interview and more of a back-and-forth. It was more about sharing ideas. None of them are earth-shattering, just banter for the most part. But the conversational version of Vivek Ramaswamy was not any different from the political stump speech version of Vivek Ramaswamy, other than he isn’t as forceful in the one-on-one conversation as he is when he is front and center on stage.
Which makes sense.
The bus driver deals with a pretty steep driveway at the Family Table in Cherokee, but he makes it. He is a few minutes late, but gets right to the point inside the room.
During the stop, there’s a 2-year-old in the front booth that is hard not to notice because he isn’t overly happy to be seated in a booth with the expectation of being quiet. Just as it appeared the mother was about to leave the room with the child, Vivek thanked them for being at the event as a family, with their young son.
He asked the little boy for his name and was told he was 2. We later learned the child’s name — Leo. And, by the way, after Vivek went out of his way to welcome the family, Leo did just fine and remained in the room the whole time.
There’s only time for three or four questions. He had one last event to get to. But there was also one more older gentleman wanting to ask a question. So Vivek obliged.
And then there was one more question.
And Vivek obliged. Eventually, he left the room, but this time he wasn’t able to get pictures with those in attendance — about 40 folks.
His day on the trail featured one more stop. My day, though, was over. Except for the drive from Cherokee back home.
The only surprise of the day was how exhausting it was. Other than that, Vivek Ramaswamy was pretty much how I thought he would be.
I know voters are hesitant to trust a 38-year-old with little political track record with the keys to the country, but I also don’t believe he is some sort of “plant.” I’m old enough to remember in 2016 when people were claiming Trump was a plant to ensure a Hillary victory. Just do a simple Google search, guys. Set the range from 01/01/2015 to 11/30/2016 and type in “Trump Democrat plant.” This link might take you to it.
None of you need to be told who to vote for. So I’m not going to do that. Nor am I trying to do that. Heck, I don’t know if I know who I’m voting for. For the umpteenth time, I understand the reasons people have for voting for Trump, for DeSantis, for Vivek and even for Nikki Haley. I also understand the reasons people have for not voting for them.
My priorities do not have to be your priorities. “My candidate” doesn’t need to win 100 percent of the votes. Actually, “my candidate” doesn’t need to win period. My job as a voter is not to vote for the candidate who will win, my job is to vote for the candidate who should win based on how they align with the issues I care about most.
The issues I care most about may not be the issues you care most about. And I should not expect you to change your issues for mine. If we want to engage in conversation, that’s one thing. But demanding you fall in line with “my candidate” is not healthy nor realistic.
There are days I could see myself voting for any of three candidates. Yet there isn’t a single day that I can see myself voting for another one of the candidates. Despite that, I still went to their event just to watch and make sure I was not missing something.
We have such an advantage as Iowans to truly get a feel for these candidates and who they really are. I know it’s politics and I know it’s a snapshot and I know it’s hard.
I know we’ve been fooled before. And unfortunately, I’m pretty certain we’ll be fooled again. But we should at least be able to say we took every opportunity we had to get to know the candidates and make a decision that wasn’t based on a TV commercial or a YouTube video or an internet article.
Give them a chance. Give them all a chance. Trust your gut. Make lists of pros and cons. Talk with people you trust about it, even if you disagree. Take your time. Don’t make a decision out of some sense of loyalty or hatred. Dig deeper. Pray about it.
The right candidate for you to support may be different than the right candidate for me to support. And the right candidate for me to support might be different than the right candidate for your co-worker to support.
It’s OK to disagree. Remember, iron sharpens iron.
Just make sure to be willing to be wrong. None of us is perfect and none of us can judge another person’s motives or heart. We can only make our conclusions based on the best information we’re given.
And there is no better way to gather that information than getting to know these candidates.
Thanks, Jacob for a very informative article. I read it all, and it is long. It seems like Vivek says a lot that will cause voters to respond positively, we want someone who will look out for Americans and uphold our values. I think it was note worthy that the pastor that said he wanted to make sure Vivek had the fear of God in him. The pastor felt like he did. I guess the pastor is not familiar with the 10 commandments. #2 says “Thou shall have no other gods before Me.” For Vivek, his Hindu gods come before Almighty God. So, no, he doesn’t fear God, and that is a huge red flag. I am not saying that the president has to be a Christian. But he cannot twist the truth of the Word of God and make it sound like he can work around that. That is actually satan’s primary tactic. Getting believers to doubt the Word of God. “Thou shall have no other gods before Me.”, means exactly what it says. So, Vivek is a “no”, no matter how good he makes it sound.