Things are not looking great for Vivek Ramaswamy.
Two polls released this week put Democrat Amy Acton ahead in the Ohio governor’s race. Marist has Acton leading 50% to 44% among registered voters, while a Suffolk poll has her ahead 50% to 41% among likely voters. Another survey has Ramaswamy narrowly ahead, so the race is hardly settled. But Ohio, a state Donald Trump carried comfortably in 2024, should not be producing this kind of anxiety for Republicans.
Some of the explanation is national. Midterms punish incumbent parties. Trump’s approval has tanked, the war with Iran is unpopular, fuel prices have surged, and voters remain angry about affordability. Republicans still control Congress, but they have struggled to turn that control into accomplishments voters can see and feel.
Ramaswamy presents an additional problem, one the party created for itself.
The Cincinnati native was born in 1985 to Indian immigrant parents. His father came to the United States on a student visa and later worked for General Electric; his mother obtained a green card and became a physician. Ramaswamy became a citizen at birth under the 14th Amendment. In other words, he was an “anchor baby.” His mother later naturalized. His father did not.
Ramaswamy built his fortune in biotech. His company Roivant created Axovant around intepirdine, an experimental Alzheimer’s drug licensed from GlaxoSmithKline for $5 million up front. Axovant’s 2015 IPO raised $315 million and briefly pushed the company’s valuation near $3 billion. In 2017, the drug failed its Phase 3 trial and Axovant’s stock fell about 70% in a day.
That history has generated plenty of suspicion among Ramaswamy’s critics, especially because Roivant raised $1.1 billion shortly before the trial results. Suspicion is not proof of fraud, of course, but the fact is that Ramaswamy made his name selling investors on a speculative biotech story that ended in spectacular failure.
He then sold voters another story.
Ramaswamy entered the 2024 presidential race as a long shot and positioned himself as Trump’s most loyal rival. He attacked the administrative state, denounced wokeness, and rarely aimed sustained fire at the front-runner. The campaign raised his national profile even though it never seriously threatened Trump.
After the election, Trump tapped Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.
Then came the Christmas crashout.
During a fight over H-1B visas, Ramaswamy argued that American culture had “venerated mediocrity over excellence” for way too long. He contrasted prom queens with math Olympiad champions, jocks with valedictorians, sleepovers with math tutoring, and popular television characters with nerds.
The backlash on the right was immediate — and deserved — because the argument landed as more than a defense of skilled immigration. Ramaswamy appeared to be telling ordinary Americans that foreign workers were outperforming them because immigrant families possessed a better culture.
The post did not single-handedly end his role in the administration, but it certainly didn’t help. Reporting at the time described deeper disagreements with Musk over the DOGE’s mission, plus Ramaswamy’s plans to run for governor. But the H-1B fight clearly worsened tensions and damaged his standing with parts of Trump’s coalition.
Ramaswamy launched his Ohio campaign in 2025 and quickly received Trump’s endorsement and the backing of the state GOP. On paper, the arrangement looked ideal: a famous candidate, a Republican-leaning state, and a president who remained popular with the GOP base.
Then the national environment deteriorated and the candidate’s own liabilities became harder to hide.
Vivek's problem is the problem a lot of immigrant kids from shame-based cultures have in trying to absorb into American life. In their home culture, they are shamed for not succeeding. I am not Indian but I know for a fact that shaming is very strong in many such households - the push for the kids to "succeed" in terms of wealth and image-driven success is over the top. It's not talked about and to many of those kids it is simply normal life.
To Americans who don't grow up that way, it is weird.
Native born Americans who don't come from such shame-based culture approach things differently. It's perfectly fine for a 20 year old man in native-born American culture to join the military, work in construction, be a musician, or do odd jobs for a few years until he settles on a more secure path. As long as he can support himself, that's what matters - and sometimes he doesn't support himself. Society is generally OK with that.
In shame-based immigrant cultures, such an approach would be ridiculed and mocked mercilessly - the kid would not be able maintain his emotional sobriety. He is driven to succeed just to keep the haranguing at bay.
Vivek definitely succeeded in terms of wealth and notoriety, but he oozes the persona that many kids ooze who succeed in shame based cultures according to those cultural terms - the arrogant image that says "I am better than you."
Most native born Americans can sense this and despise this implicit messaging. It is not a racist response but a "who the heck are you - why do you think you should rule over us?"
Best description I've read of Vivek is he's the self-congratulatory overachiever, image-conscious know-it-all guy in high school who most people find to be too much.
The skills that served him well to thrive in a shame-based culture are not appreciated or liked in broader American culture. If he crashes and burns in American politics, it's because of this.
Hindu Vegetarian anchor-babies with non citizen fathers aren't on my list of Americans.