Ramaswamy Up, DeSantis Down as First GOP Debate Beckons

As a gaggle of contenders - not including Donald Trump - prepares to do battle in the GOP debate on Aug. 23, signaling the unofficial start of the 2024 presidential campaign, it has now become conventional wisdom that the campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a crashing - and surprising - disappointment. To the question of why, some say it is the work of his own hand, from an embarrassing rollout that made him look like an amateur to his single-minded focus on the highly divisive culture war and his seeming inability to connect with voters on an emotional level. Others see DeSantis’ fall as merely the inevitable byproduct of a groundswell of support for the martyred Trump. But now, though he still clings to an increasingly narrow lead among the non-Trump pack of candidates, DeSantis faces an unexpected challenge for his title of “best of the rest.” And it comes from a most unlikely source, the candidate who began the race with the lowest name recognition in the entire field but who has now captured the imagination of the conservative intelligentsia.

Meet Vivek (pronounced like cake) Ramaswamy, the newest heartthrob of Republicans across the land, who is now closing in on the Florida governor like the proverbial object in the rearview mirror that is closer than it appears. His recent statement in the face of an unfriendly leftist about “the tyranny of the minority” was widely applauded, and his ongoing assets are numerous, from his youth -- he is just 38 years old -- to being a person of color, to his appeal as an outsider like Trump, a highly successful biotech entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of more than $600 million. On top of this, with his pledge to pardon the former president, and his fluent, full-throated attacks on wokeness in all its forms, he has begun to separate himself from the career politicians, at least seven of whom will compete with him on the debate stage.

In addition to Ramaswamy and DeSantis, those who have so far qualified for the debate on Fox News -- by attracting at least 40,000 contributors, signing a pledge to support the party’s nominee, and polling at 1% or more in multiple polls -- include Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota, former Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and ex-Vice President Mike Pence.

Setting the Stage for the GOP Debate

For a candidate who knows he must somehow pick off a substantial portion of Trump’s unshakably loyal base in order to be competitive, it was surprising, if not downright shocking, to hear DeSantis unload on Trump loyalists over the weekend, describing them as “listless vessels” in a Florida interview, and adding that “a movement can’t be about the personality of one individual.” Those remarks immediately went viral and stirred widespread anger among the MAGA faithful. Trump responded by saying DeSantis “decided to rip a page out of Hillary Clinton’s ‘deplorable’ playbook by smearing millions of Trump voters.” Ramaswamy, again demonstrating a sense of the moment, jumped at the opportunity to pile on his Sunshine State rival by writing that “the real danger to our movement is the rise of ‘listless-vessel’ robot politicians who blindly follow the commands of their Super PACs.” Indeed, in another embarrassment for the Florida governor, a memo on debate strategy was somehow released from the DeSantis PAC, advising their man to “take a sledgehammer to Vivek Ramaswamy” and invent a catchy nickname like “Vivek the Fake.” At a time when he desperately needs to stop the bleeding, DeSantis may have just done the opposite, to the direct benefit of Vivek the upstart.

Of course, none of this will matter if the 45th president continues his seemingly inexorable march to a third straight GOP nomination -- except in one potentially critical respect. While DeSantis was long considered an ideal running mate for Trump, that pairing now appears unlikely at best, and Trump may well be looking to select a person of color, likely Sen. Scott, to offset the left’s caricature of him as a racist. But the recent performance by Ramaswamy, coupled with a strong presentation under the klieg lights of a nationally televised debate, would likely vault the youthful entrepreneur and anti-woke crusader into serious consideration for the ticket – and provide him with a big jump on 2028, when, one way or another, the White House will welcome a president not named Trump or Biden.