“I’m the outsider on this stage. I’m not a politician. My parents came to this country 40 years ago with no money, and I’ve gone on to found multibillion dollar companies,” said the young man with a beaming smile at the first GOP debate stage on Wednesday night. “I did it while getting married to my wife Apoorva and raising our two sons. That’s the American Dream.”
It has been a dizzyingly fast rise for Vivek Ramaswamy, who was virtually unknown to every American household just six months ago when he first threw his hat into the GOP nominee hopeful ring. But this week, he took the center podium on the Fox News debate stage, meaning he is polling among the highest of a much more politically known pool of candidates — and, according to many assessments, came out as the clear winner of the first debate with his quick wit and strong yet jovial persona. (RELATED: DANIEL TURNER: GOP Debaters Knocked This Topic Out Of The Park)
Over the last few weeks, the 38-year-old biotech billionaire born to Indian immigrant parents has soared, according to some polls, into the number two spot behind former President Donald Trump, overtaking the once long-held favorite, Ron DeSantis. A recent Fox News poll shows Ramaswamy’s popularity has more than doubled since the previous survey, while the latest data from The Hill shows him tied for second with DeSantis, and Republican firm Cynal has him hovering a point above the Florida governor.
Whatever the case, Ramaswamy is only climbing as DeSantis declines, and it’s no secret that he is ascending leaps and bounds above the other well-known names, including Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Mike Pence and Tim Scott. And this isn’t just a fluke – this is the product of a brilliant 24/7 media strategy to return every call, accept every interview and take a mass media approach to get his name – and his views – out there for the world to see and hear.
Taking a leaf from Trump’s successful 2016 campaign playbook, but with much further to climb given that he wasn’t an already-known commodity like the 45th U.S. president, Ramaswamy has approached his nomination bid with relentless high energy from day one, ensured all cameras are pointed his way, and remained unafraid to address anyone and everyone who will give him a platform that will, in turn, generate headlines.
While Ramaswamy has emerged as a charismatic favorite among conservative news outlets, he is just as willing to engage mainstream and left-leaning outlets – from CNN and PBS to The Atlantic and Time Magazine – reckoning with the notion that all press is good press. While most of the other candidates have shied away from too many interviews, especially ones that could hit them with a “gotcha” question or potentially spin a response with a politically partisan heavy hand, the Cincinnati-born Ramaswamy takes whatever comes with enthusiasm and doesn’t seem to mind unraveling himself from a bind, which emanated this past week after his remarks to The Atlantic concerning September 11 stirred controversy.
But Ramaswamy has taken his clever communications gameplan further than his older-age rivals, maximizing a modern approach by routinely producing much more online content and tapping into the wildly popular podcast listenership.
In recent months, he has appeared on more than seventy such programs, including those with significant followings such as Jordan Peterson, Bill Maher, Dan Bongino, Megyn Kelly, Russell Brand and Candice Owens, but also more obscure and fringe ones, including those that typically focus on women’s wellness, retirement, and young adult matters. After all, the secret sauce lies in reaching as many individuals from as many walks of life as possible to build up a base from scratch.
Podcasts enable hours-long, deep dives into one’s life and philosophies – a far cry from the quick soundbites offered in a two-minute segment synonymous with television news – bringing a listener much closer to the guest. Furthermore, video clips from podcast highlights are often widely disseminated across social media, from Instagram to TikTok to Twitter, thus reaching millions – many more than the traditional legacy media model, thus in turn fortifying a much larger online following and quickly escalating name recognition. According to Edison Research, almost half of American adults over the age of 12 listen to at least one podcast per month, up from 12% in 2013. (RELATED: JOHN STOSSEL: Are We Really Stuck With Trump And Biden?)
If he wasn’t busy enough, Ramaswamy launched his own podcast, “The Vivek Show,” in April to give followers a behind-the-scenes view of the political process while interviewing numerous high-profile personalities.
The media storm lets us know the vying world leader beyond the basic bio, highlighting that he graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School and founded the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences. We have the opportunity to understand his platform and precisely why he takes a staunch stance against wokeness, excessive political correctness, and cancel culture and fervently advocates for small government and capitalism. In addition, we have endless opportunities to see how Ramaswamy can present all this in an amiable bundle, delivering his perspectives with a strong yet courteous demeanor.
Whether Ramaswamy’s star will continue to rise in this election cycle remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: he is a brilliant media tactician and someone his rivals should pay very close attention to. For one, if DeSantis wants to live up to the expectations the GOP once had of him, he needs to stop being so cautious, smile and say yes to interview opportunities that arise, and as Trump would say it, prove to us that you aren’t low energy.
Candidates who avoid the media do themselves a disservice and only show the world that they are afraid of their own shadows – not exactly a characteristic synonymous with the leader of the free world.
As further exemplified at Wednesday’s debate with his impassioned and firmly rooted arguments, if anything, Ramaswamy has breathed some fresh air into the Republican race by listening to what Americans want. Despite being a long shot away from catching Trump, he is a welcome sign that someone has got their media strategy right.
Adam Weiss is the CEO of AMW PR, a New York based political strategy and communications firm. His firm has worked with Jim Brown, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Eboni Williams, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Andrew Giuliani, Governor Haley Barbour, Steve Hilton. Anthony Scaramucci, and more.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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