The 2024 Presidential election is well underway. And Americans are learning some disturbing facts about the candidates.
Because a top 2024 Presidential candidate has made a game-changing confession.
After being questioned by the media, presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy revealed he has lied about his voting record.
Ramaswamy famously claimed in interviews published on June 30 and July 12 that he didn’t cast a ballot until the 2020 presidential election, when he voted for then-candidate Donald Trump over incumbent Joe Biden.
According to Ramaswamy and records from Butler and Franklin counties in Ohio, the affluent entrepreneur cast his first presidential ballot for the late Libertarian contender Michael Badnarik in 2004.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Ramaswamy said, “It was a throwaway vote,” referring to the 2004 election in which he “was disgusted” with both the Republican George W. Bush and the Democratic John Kerry. He was 19 at the time.
“A throwaway vote in that I knew it was a candidate who was not going to win.”
The 2024 hopeful admitted that he was “very cynical and jaded,” and that he didn’t recall the 2004 election because “it wasn’t meaningful to me” because Ramaswamy had just recently graduated from high school.
“I remember being, as I was, very disaffected. John Kerry versus George Bush left me deeply uninspired. And, you know, I didn’t think my vote was going to make a difference.”
These comments came after Ramaswamy said, “Yup,” in an interview with Scripps News in July, in response to the reporter’s astonishment that he had not voted in a presidential election until 2020. “So, you voted for the first time. Now, it’s a little bit over two years. You’re running for president. That’s a pretty big jump to just go from voting, now 2 1/2 years later, to run.”
Ramaswamy responded, “I mean, the reality is, most young people in this country don’t vote because they’re not excited by the candidates that they see. And in my twenties, I was much the same way. Something changed for me when I became a father in 2020. That’s when my first son was born. It just changed my perspective, to say that I’m not just going to passively sit aside just because I’m not excited by other candidates.”
Earlier in June, Ramaswamy was questioned on the Breakfast Club radio show, “When is it that you voted for the first time?”
Similarly, the candidate declared, “I voted in 2020.”
When the presenter followed up with, “So for how many years you sat around and did not get involved in any civic engagement?,” Ramaswamy said, “A long time is the answer.”
When Ramaswamy’s contradictory statements about voting became public, the businessman was riding high in surveys for the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Kaplan Strategies polled 800 prospective Republican primary voters last week, and Trump received 48% of the support, with Ramaswamy and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) tied for second at 12%.
On average, Republican primary voters back Trump at 52.3%, DeSantis at 18%, Ramaswamy at 5.5%, former VP Mike Pence at 5.5%, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley at 3.5%, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) at 2.9%, according to a survey by RealClearPolitics. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (R), and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez are among the hopefuls who are polling at less than 3%.
Ramaswamy voted for Badnarik in 2004, the Libertarian Party nominee, despite his stated pledge to “veto any legislation restricting a woman’s right to choose” on his campaign website. The Libertarian, who passed away in 2022, was also an adherent of the theory that “immigration restrictions for peaceful individuals who come to America to work, study, and live” should be lifted. He also entertained 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Ramaswamy voted for a Libertarian in 2004, but he’s not the one prospective 2024 GOP presidential candidate who hasn’t always voted that way.
Before his 2016 election victory, Trump, who famously switched parties, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in 2004 that “in many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat.”
Polls will, in time, show whether this admission makes Ramaswamy’s polling numbers take a hit.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
