DES MOINE, Iowa—Vivek Ramaswamy has announced he’s dropping out of the presidential race after placing fourth in the Iowa Caucus.
“There is no path for me to be the next president, absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country,” he announced late on Jan. 15 at his Iowa watch party in Surety Hotel in downtown Des Moines.
“I am so proud of every one of you who have lifted us up,” he told the crowd, before pivoting to another announcement: former President Donald Trump would enjoy his “full endorsement.”
Mr. Ramaswamy said earlier in the night he called President Trump to say he was suspending his campaign and would endorse the former president.
As of 11:39 p.m. ET, the candidate finished fourth in the race at 7.7 percent, behind former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley.
“We did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
Mr. Ramaswamy suggested that his move was in line with America’s interests as a country.
He told reporters he intended to campaign with President Trump in New Hampshire and said he believes neither Ms. Haley nor Mr. DeSantis has a path to winning the GOP nomination.
Former President Trump spoke positively of Mr. Ramaswamy during his victory address.
After making the announcement, he spoke to his supporters and the press.
“It’s just the beginning,” his stream on X captured him saying to one watch party attendee.
One supporter pledged she would give President Trump the level of support she had given Mr. Ramaswamy.
Does Not Rule Out Vice Presidency
Mr. Ramaswamy did not rule out the possibility of serving as a vice president, despite repeatedly saying he was uninterested in the position while still campaigning.“I’m going to evaluate whatever is best for the future of this country,” he said after announcing his campaign’s suspension.
The businessman launched his run on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program in February 2023.
He went on to campaign throughout 2023, capitalizing on an Internet-friendly, libertarian populist persona that saw him everywhere from Tim Pool’s podcast to New Hampshire’s summer PorcFest, a libertarian extravaganza.
In Iowa, he pursued a strategy that combined a willingness to court controversy—a specialty of the lightning rod candidacy—with attention to local issues—specifically, the battle over the use of eminent domain to take land for carbon capture pipelines.
He campaigned across the state with former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who was primaried in the aftermath of a New York Times article alleging he had spoken positively of white nationalism. In his time out of office, Mr. King has made the dispute over carbon capture pipelines a focus of activism.
Mr. King, Mr. Ramaswamy, and conservative commentator Candace Owens appeared together on a stage at the National Czech-Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ahead of the Jan. 15 caucus.
“Is it going to be the brown face of white supremacy, the white face of brown supremacy? They’re going to have a field day with that,” Mr. Ramaswamy said, joking about how the legacy media would frame the trio’s interaction.
The candidate also continually stressed his appreciation for President Trump on the campaign trail.
His attorneys recently filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting the man he has now endorsed. The highest court in the land took up the case after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to take President Trump off its GOP primary ballot on 14th Amendment grounds.
Mr. Ramaswamy was slated to appear on multiple primary and caucus ballots. Notably, he did not file to appear on Illinois’s Republican primary ballot.
