Investment Firm Manager Vivek Ramaswamy Announces Run For President

Donald Trump: The former president announced his entry into the race a week after the November election on wounded footing as prominent GOP members blamed him for a string of midterm election losses that left the party with a slimmer-than-expected majority in the House, but he maintains broad support among those who voted for him in previous elections.

Ron DeSantis: Unlike Trump, the midterm election was a boon to the Florida governor, who won a second term by a wide margin and became the first GOP candidate in 20 years to win Miami-Dade County, and while he is unlikely to announce before the Florida legislative session ends in May, he went on a multi-state tour in February that looks very much like a precursor to a presidential campaign.

Nikki Haley: After vowing not to run against Trump, the former South Carolina governor became his first official challenger earlier this month, calling for a “new generation of leadership” in a video announcement, while attacking President Joe Biden’s “abysmal record” and noting that Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight elections, but Haley is polling at a low 3% among potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates, according to a January Morning Consult poll.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Less than a week after Haley announced her campaign, Ramaswamy—who made Forbes’ list of America’s richest entrepreneurs under 40 in 2016 with a net worth of $600 million at the time—entered the fray with a video announcement in which he dubs “covidism, climatism and gender ideology” as “new secular religions,” a statement that builds on what he calls an “anti-woke” message detailed in his 2021 book, “Woke, Inc.”

Tim Scott: The South Carolina senator has made key hires for a super-PAC in support of his political ambitions, Axios reported in February, and is set to visit Iowa on February 22 in which he will promote a message of “hope and opportunity,” his senior advisor Jennifer DeCasper told the Wall Street Journal.

Mike Pence: The former vice president, while traversing the country to promote his new memoir, So Help Me God, has left open the possibility of a presidential run, recently telling CBS News in January, “I think we’ve got time . . . we’re going to continue to travel, we’re going to continue to listen,” though recent discoveries of classified documents at his Indiana home could be a threat to his aspirations.

Mike Pompeo: Also out with a new book titled Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, the former secretary of state told CBS in January he would decide on a 2024 presidential bid in “the next handful of months.”

Asa Hutchinson: Hutchinson, who served eight years as governor of Arkansas until the end of last year, recently told CBS he would likely make a decision about running for president in April and has been a vocal critic of Trump’s role in the January 6 Capitol riots, going as far to say it “disqualifies” him from running again.

Chris Sununu: The New Hampshire governor raised the prospects of a possible 2024 run on Sunday, telling CBS News’ Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on Sunday that it would be “an opportunity to change things,” after recently taking steps to solidify his political future with the launching of a new super-PAC.

Glenn Youngkin: He raised his national profile campaigning for GOP candidates during the 2022 midterm election, but the Virginia governor has remained noncommittal on a run for president, telling NBC News in January he is “humbled” by talk of a potential candidacy and remains “so focused” on his current role.