Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder and former CEO of Roivant Sciences, announced he is running for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night.
Ramaswamy made the announcement on Tucker Carlson Tonight and followed it up with a three-and-a-half minute campaign launch video on Twitter.
As part of his platform, Ramaswamy has called for an end to affirmative action, an eight-year limit on federal bureaucrats and the release of “state action files,” specifically echoing the release of internal Twitter documents by Elon Musk following his takeover of the company last year.
Ramaswamy led Roivant from its founding in 2014 until transitioning out of his day-to-day role as CEO in January 2021. On Tuesday, the biotech announced that he stepped down from the company’s board of directors to focus on his presidential campaign.
Roivant’s mission is to apply technological capabilities to the drug development of late-stage candidates, including in specialty areas like dermatology, immunology and respiratory diseases. According to its latest earnings report, Roivant finished the most recent quarter with a net revenue of $17 billion, down from $24.3 billion during the final quarter of 2021.
The success of the company has been a boon for Ramaswamy, who over the course of his entrepreneurial career has accumulated an estimated net worth of $600 million, according to Forbes.
Though Ramaswamy got his start as a biotech leader, he has pivoted in recent years to position himself as something of a corporate cultural warrior.
In 2021, he authored Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam, which became a New York Times bestseller. The book articulates Ramaswamy’s criticisms of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and what he deems “stakeholder capitalism.”
Following the book’s publication, the 37-year-old has made numerous appearances on Fox News to deride ESG, “woke ideology” and “victimhood culture.” A recent profile in The New Yorker even dubbed him “The C.E.O. of Anti-Woke, Inc.”
Last year, Ramaswamy also co-founded Strive Asset Management, an alternative to ESG-based hedge funds that seeks to “restore the voices of everyday citizens by guiding companies to focus on excellence over politics,” according to the homepage of its website. Much like with his role at Roivant, Ramaswamy has stepped down as executive chairman at Strive to prioritize his run for office.
While Ramaswamy is the third person to officially declare their candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, following former President Donald Trump and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, his candidacy remains a longshot. He isn’t listed in RealClearPolitics’ aggregation of national polls of GOP voters, or recent primary polls conducted by Morning Consult or FiveThirtyEight.
Still, Ramaswamy has at least one powerful ally. Last week, prior to officially announcing his run for office, Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman tweeted that Ramaswamy would win the presidency. Ackman said America is “ready for his message,” while adding that Ramaswamy will “attract the center to the right to win” and “speaks hard truths which many believe but fear to say.”
For a January 2024 article on Vivek Ramaswamy ending his presidential bid, click here.
