The fact that Vivek Ramaswamy attracted the most criticism from fellow Republican candidates in the first primary debate on Wednesday night showed he is considered a major threat.
The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur would be the youngest ever US president if he wins next year’s election, and has surged in the polls in recent weeks as Ron DeSantis’s campaign has floundered.
On Wednesday, Mr Ramaswamy sought to be the breakout candidate of the debate, declaring himself the “skinny guy with a funny last name” who was the “outsider” of the Republican primary race.
For many on the American Right, he is the best alternative candidate to Donald Trump, who remains the bookmaker’s favourite but is beset by legal challenges including four criminal indictments.
Mr Ramaswamy was born in Ohio in 1985 to Hindu Indian immigrants and built himself a career as a hedge fund investor after stints at both Harvard and Yale.
In 2014, he started his own biotech company, Roivant Sciences, which bought patents from larger companies for drugs that had not yet been fully developed and marketed.
He is married to Apoorva Tewari, a laryngologist he reportedly met when they were both graduate students at Yale.
He has said he derived his “humility” from his wife, who he said is a “leader in her own way, in her own unique world”.
The couple have two young sons, Karthik and Arjun.
Over the course of his career as an investor and CEO, he has amassed an estimated net worth of $350 million (£275 million).
Now, according to the poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, he is placed third among the Republican candidates, with 9.7 per cent of the vote compared with Mr DeSantis’s 15.2 per cent and Mr Trump’s 52.1 per cent.
Throughout the Republican primary race, he has pitched himself as both the most strident defender of Mr Trump, and the most conservative candidate on major issues including “woke” politics, climate change and the war in Ukraine.
On Wednesday night, he was condemned by the other candidates, including Mike Pence, who described him as a “rookie”, and Chris Christie, who said he “sounds like ChatGPT”.
The debate, hosted by Fox News in Milwaukee, saw most of the candidates – but not Mr Trump – take to the stage and set out their pitch to American voters.
Mr Ramaswamy summarised his views in a final address, telling the cameras: “God is real. There are two genders. Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity. Reverse racism is racism. An open border is not a border. Parents determine the education of their children. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to man. Capitalism lifts us up from poverty.”
The candidates have split on the biggest issue in Republican politics right now: the legal tribulations of Mr Trump.
While some, including Mr Pence, his former vice president, have condemned Mr Trump and his behaviour after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Mr Ramaswamy has been vocal in his defence.
When candidates were asked whether they would still support the former president as the Republican nominee if he is convicted in Georgia – where he faces accusations he ran a criminal conspiracy to overturn the election – Mr Ramaswamy was the first to jump to his defence.
And in response to a question about climate change – which he has previously denied – he played to a sceptical audience, arguing the US should “unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear”.
He also led criticism of the US’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia – a major dividing line between Republicans.
Asked if he would increase military support in the conflict, he said: “I would not, and I think that this is disastrous, protecting against an invasion across somebody else’s border when we should use those same military resources to prevent the invasion of our own southern border here in the United States.”
‘It’s going to take an outsider’One of the most memorable moments of the debate came in his opening remarks, when Mr Ramaswamy said: “Let me just address a question that is on everybody’s mind at home tonight. Who is this skinny guy with a funny last name and what the heck are you doing in the middle of this debate stage?”
He added: “I’ll tell you I’m not a politician. You’re right about that. I’m an entrepreneur... And I do think that it’s going to take an outsider.”
The opening gambit produced a memorable riposte from Mr Christie, the former New Jersey governor, who said: “Last person in one of these debates who stood in the middle of the stage and said ‘What’s a skinny guy with an odd last name doing up here’ was Barack Obama, and I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur crusade.”
In the last few months, Mr Ramaswamy’s strident criticism of the “woke” establishment and plans to scrap the department of education in an attempt to prune federal government has seen donors flock to him.
By the end of June, he was fourth in the race for donations, behind Mr Trump, Tim Scott and Mr DeSantis.
Earlier this month, he went viral for his rendition of Eminem’s Lose Yourself on stage at the Iowa State Fair, and told US cable networks he would use his power as president to pardon Mr Trump and erase any federal convictions.
His support earned him the praise of Donald Trump Jr, who told reporters in the debate’s spin room: “I thought he had a standout performance. I mean, I think that did what Ron DeSantis needed to do.”
Despite the apparent affinity between the two men, Mr Ramaswamy has dismissed rumours he could be Mr Trump’s running mate next year.
He told Fox: “Frankly, I would drive change through the private sector rather than assume the role of number two or three in the federal government.”
By 6.30am on Thursday, 39 per cent of Telegraph readers said Mr Ramaswamy had come out on top in the Republican debate.
The morning after, the other candidates will be asking themselves: could he go all the way?
