GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Saturday praised his wife Apoorva’s work raising the couple’s two children while working as a surgeon as he runs for president.
During an interview with Erick Erickson on stage in Atlanta, Ramaswamy said his family and faith in God help keep him humble while running for the highest office in America.
“I think I do derive a lot of the humility from my wife, who is a leader in her own way, in her own unique world,” Ramaswamy said.
Describing a brief period when he and his wife were able to catch up following days on the campaign trail, Ramaswamy compared his political efforts to his wife’s work as a doctor and caring for their children.
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“We had a few short hours last night and this morning together, and I heard about her struggle and accomplishment of this week, which related to the twelve cases that she did as a throat surgeon at Ohio State while being a mother, taking care of our two sons while I’m on the campaign trail trying to do all my part for reviving this nation,” Ramaswamy said.
“When I go home, do I look at her and say, ‘Hey what I’m doing is more important for our entire family?’ Far from it. Each of us has a contribution to make in our own way. Could I be possible making the contribution that she’s making every day? No I cannot,” he continued.
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“In some ways, that’s how I look at the presidency. We can fall into the trap of believing that’s the most important role, and it’s going to be an audition of who’s going to be the messiah coming from the White House on down to save the country. I don’t believe it works that way.”
According to Ramaswamy, every American has a role to play in a national revival — which has been a core talking point of his presidential campaign.
“I’m not going to be able to lead that national revival alone,” Ramaswamy said.
“Lead us to economic independence from China, drill, frack, burn coal, roll back the federal reg that stop us from growing our economy — those are the things that are in my court; if you all put me in that job, that’s my job to do.”
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“But what’s the job of people across this country to do, as parents?” Ramaswamy said.
A former healthcare entrepreneur and author of “Woke, Inc,” Ramaswamy has criticized the Biden administration’s economic and energy policies particularly, and pilloried “woke” capitalism and over-regulation as damaging the American middle class.
Ramaswamy has risen in early 2024 polls, but he still lags far behind GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and slightly below Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He ranked fourth in Fox News’ Power Rankings this week, behind Trump, DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott due to his resonance with small-dollar donors and 43% favorability among likely GOP voters.
However, Ramaswamy has not polled above single digits in early primary and caucus states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which will be crucial to gaining momentum once the nominating contests kick off next year.
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Ramaswamy’s rise appears to be concerning some members of the GOP field. In a reported debate guidance memo, DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down advised the Florida governor to use the first GOP primary debate, hosted by Fox News, to throw Trump-style insults at Ramaswamy. “Take a sledgehammer to Vivek Ramaswamy: ‘Fake Vivek’ Or ‘Vivek the Fake,’” the memo advised, according to the New York Times.