America's Talking - ‘Anti-Woke’ Candidate Announces Presidential Bid

Episode Date: February 26, 2023

A new Republican candidate threw his hat into the presidential race late Tuesday, focusing his campaign on an “anti-woke” agenda. Vivek Ramaswamy, an author, activist, and a multimillionaire businessman, announced his candidacy on Tucker Carlson tonight and with a string of Tweets. Join The Center Square's Dan McCaleb and Casey Harper on this episode of America in Focus. --- Listen to Other ATN Productions: America's Talking: An interview podcast hosted by Austin Berg. Guests include professors, journalists, artists, business and nonprofit leaders, authors, and more. Everyday Economics: Join economist Dr. Orphe Divounguy and Chris Krug as they discuss global markets, inflation, and everything else that will help you understand the economic world around you. Future of Freedom: Future of Freedom is a bi-weekly podcast highlighting the work of the non-profits which are shaping the future of the freedom movement. Listeners will hear civil, intellectual conversations about why the organizations exist, what their mission is, and how they work to achieve it. Hosted by Scot Bertram. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everyone and welcome to America in Focus. I'm Dan McAulib, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's DC Bureau Chief. We're still two years away, almost two years away, not quite two years away, from the next presidential election and more people are getting into the fray announcing their candidacy. What's the latest this week? Yes, we have a Republican primary field that is becoming more and more crowded. You may not have heard of this guy, but I think that you are going to be hearing about him a lot this year. His name is Vivek Ramoswami. He's an author. He's an activist. He's a, you know, a successful businessman. And he announced his candidacy for president this week. I'll just read some of his. I'll read this

quote from him, kind of give you an idea of how he speaks, what he's saying. So we're in the middle of a national identity crisis. Faith, patriotism, and hard work have disappeared. Wokism, climatism, and gender ideology have replaced them. We hunger for purpose, yet cannot answer what it means to be an American. We long for that answer. That's why I'm running for president. So you can see, you get an idea of kind of his top issues in that quote. You see he's taking on the quote-unquote wokeism head-on climate issues, maybe some issues that Republicans might have tried to avoid in an earlier political time. But he's taking him head on. It's more of the Trump, maybe DeSantis' style of politics. He's very, I don't know how to say, but he's a very eloquent guy when he talks,

he makes his points. He kind of could go viral easily. He announces candidacy really on Tucker Carlson tonight on Fox News, but also on Twitter the same night. So he's going to be somebody to watch. I mean, it's hard to know that if he can really rise above juggernauts like Trump, like DeSantis. But he is the kind of guy who could shift what the presidential primary is about, right? He can help it stay focused on something like wokeism. He's the kind of guy who could take somebody down at a debate because he's such a good speaker, even if he himself doesn't rise to the top of the polling.

So he's somebody to keep an honor for sure. Let's talk about that briefly. So you mentioned up top a lot of people hadn't heard of them. I'm going to admit, I'm one of those. I was not familiar with Vivek Ramaswamy. Am I saying that correctly? Ramaswami, yeah. Ramoswami, thank you.

I mean, Donald Trump has already announced former president. Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, has announced. You know, of course, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has not. announced anything, but there's widespread speculation that he's going to get into the field. There's the former vice president, Mike Pence, who's been, he hasn't formally announced either, but he's been traveling the country and getting into some of these key early primary states. So it's expected that he's going to run. How does someone like Ramoswamy, I mean, he's got very little a name recognition. I don't know what his funding is like, but we both know

that Trump, Pence, DeSantis, they're going to be able to raise tons of money for their campaign. So how does someone like Ramoswami have a chance really to get his name out there? Well, maybe he doesn't. Could be the answer. I think, as I said, if you start watching some videos of him on YouTube, he can really get on a role. He's a kind of guy who could go viral at a debate and maybe rise to prominence that way. I don't want to be too cynical, but sometimes, you know, people like this run to get more famous, right? Or to maybe set themselves up for running again in four, eight years, right?

He is an author. That's kind of he's written these books about, you know, as I said, wokeism, woke politics. And so it could be that he's just trying to promote his books. He seems sincere to me, but you don't really ever know. So it could just be that this is getting his name recognition up. And in four or eight years, he runs again. And now he's a known quantity. It could be that he's someone like Pete Buttigieg who's unknown, then he runs. And then he ends up being in the cabinet, right? I mean, that's what happened to Pete. Nobody knew about mayor from, you know, the Midwest until he ran. But he was well-spoken. He, he, he,

he was a peeling guy and then suddenly he's in the cabinet. So that's the kind of thing that could happen with this guy. You never know. I mean, he could just, he could go viral and take over it. The politics is different now. You can go viral in a way you couldn't go 20 years ago. But you're right. He doesn't have the money of some of these bigger guys. So it's going to be an uphill battle for sure. He is from Columbus, Ohio. Ohio, of course, is one of those key swing states that have more influence over many others when it comes to picking a president. So I don't know. Well, We'll see. In other presidential political news this week, we referenced Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He took a trip, visited a fraternal order of police chapter here in my home state of Illinois, which is, of course, is blue. Governor Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, who's also rumored to be a potential presidential candidate on the Democrat side, depending on what President Biden decides to do. They went at each other on social media. and via news conferences there. So it looks like DeSantis, certainly in Illinois, creating a bit of a stir

because DeSantis is the opposite. When it comes to policy positions of Pritzker, does you make anything out of that? I mean, I think this is exactly where DeSantis wants to be. He wants to be in the news. He wants to be the focus of Democrat attacks. When you're in the general election, you want to appeal to moderates. But in the primary, you know, you're happy when Democrats attack you because you can use that to say, hey, see, I'm the Republican champion. I'm the one they're going after. I'm the one they see as they're very. biggest threat. And I think it's probably true that Democrats see Ron DeSantis is their biggest threat, maybe even more than Trump. Because DeSantis, the common wisdom is that DeSantis has more of appeal to moderate, moderates than Trump does, because Trump is so polarizing. So I think that this is

exactly where DeSantis wants to be. He wants people to be talking about him in a better place than he's out there supporting police. And that's where he gets attacked him. He's like, that's what every story is going to say. I want to know, you know more about Pritzker than probably anybody I know. what's your read on him? Does he have real ambitions in this regard or is it just journalists kind of saying that people want to run for president? It would really, there's nothing to it. And if he did run, can he win? Well, that's another question. Let me talk about, let me first answer about his ambitions. I definitely think he has ambitions to run. Now, if President Biden comes out and says he is going to run for re-election, of course, there's plenty of questions

about President Biden's age and his mental capacity at this point. But if Biden comes out and says, he's running, and I think folks like Pritzker, California governor Gavin Newsom, they might pull back and hold off, not wanting to challenge the sitting president, but if President Biden decides against running for re-election, I think it's wide open. And I think Pritzker will run. I think Gavin Newsom will run. So it's largely we're waiting on what Joe Biden decides. Now, can Governor Pritzker win, that's a tough one. My initial thought would be no, but then if he wins the Democratic primary, it all depends on who he's running against. I think the Democrats wouldn't mind running against Donald Trump again, to be honest with you. I think DeSantis, as you mentioned,

can appeal to more moderates. So they'd rather run against Trump than someone like DeSantis. But it's a long stretch till 2024, even though it's February 2023, I think by summer, by this summer, we'll have. have a better idea of what the field's going to look like. We always have to say that Trump is the X factor that turns a lot of the conventional wisdom on its head. So you never know with Trump. Continue to follow that story at the center square.com. That'll play out, as we mentioned, through the summer, into the fall, and then primary season is going to be honest when you get closer to the end of the year. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAaleb. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.