By Mark Niquette [Mark Weaver quoted below]
(Bloomberg) -- Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who’s railed against “woke” investing based on environmental, social and governance principles, is laying the groundwork for a potential Republican run for the White House.
Ramaswamy, 37, a native of southwest Ohio, has been meeting power brokers and giving speeches in Iowa and key states to gage audience response, highlighting his belief that the US has moved away from the values and ideas on which it was founded.
“Yes, I am strongly considering it,” he wrote when asked if he was planning to run for president.
“If you ask most people in my generation what it means to be an American, you get a blank stare,” Ramaswamy said. “I’m on a mission to deliver an answer to that question. We need to revive the basic ideas that set this nation into motion nearly 250 years ago.”
Politico earlier reported that he was mulling a White House bid.
Ramaswamy would bring business expertise to what could be a crowded Republican field in 2024. By going after ESG, he is targeting one of the favorite lanes of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is also expected to jump into the race.
Ramaswamy began his career as a biotech investor after graduating from Harvard with a degree in biology and a law degree from Yale. He founded Roivant Sciences in 2014 and led large biotech initial public offerings in 2015 and 2016, as well as founding other health-care and technology companies, according to his website.
He’s the author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” and he co-founded Strive Asset Management that launched last year with backing from billionaire investors including Peter Thiel and Bill Ackerman after issuers such as BlackRock Inc. backed ESG funds in recent years. Strive is focused on “leading companies to focus on excellence over politics,” Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy has been helping lead the charge among conservatives against “woke capitalism” which he defines as companies focusing on cultural and political issues rather than profits and innovation. DeSantis has also been building a national brand opposing ESG policies and “woke” corporations like Walt Disney Co.
Ramaswamy’s criticisms are starting to get some traction but he hasn’t yet held elected office and doesn’t have a national profile in politics. Mark Weaver, a veteran GOP consultant in Ohio, said it might make more sense next year for Ramaswamy to run for the US Senate seat currently held by Sherrod Brown unless he’s angling to be considered for a vice presidential slot.
“Vivek is a very talented man with a strong message about equality in government,” Weaver said. “But he will need to prove himself at a lower level in government before he runs for president.”
This article was originally published in Bloomberg.