Vivek Ramaswamy to attend second GOP debate tomorrow; his wife recalls first reaction to candidacy

“Our national debt crisis is real & it’s going to take a CEO from outside of politics to fix it. I built a multibillion-dollar biotech company from scratch by developing five medicines now FDA-approved that the bureaucracy in big pharma abandoned. I built an insurgent asset manager to compete head-on with BlackRock & Vanguard by leading the crusade against the ESG bureaucracy. Now I’m taking on the biggest bureaucracy of all: the federal government,” he wrote.

“Here’s how we’ll fix the debt crisis: ZERO-BASE BUDGETING. Start with zero as the budget for every department, then figure out what’s really essential, instead of just taking last year’s budget as the default. That’s something that both Republicans and Democrats can get behind, but there isn’t a *single* red state or blue state in this country that actually does it. It’s going to take an outsider to deliver. Sign me up,” he added.

Ramaswamy’s comments come ahead of the second GOP Primary 2024 debate to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday (September 27).

He is set for a face-off with fellow candidates Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former vice-president Mike Pence, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Senator Tim Scott. Former US President Donald Trump is giving the debate a miss.

The 38-year-old Ramaswamy had seen his profile rise after an eye-catching performance in the first GOP debate.

Vivek’s wife speaks

He is married to throat cancer surgeon, Dr. Apoorva, with whom he has two children, Karthik and Arjun. In an interview with ABC News, Apoorva said that when she was told of Vivek’s decision to run for the presidency, she was worried about the timing.

“The first thing I said was, ‘Are you sure that this is the right time?’ You know, we are young. At that time, we had basically a 6-month-old and a 3-year-old. And we really thought deeply about whether this was the right thing, both for our family and whether Vivek, as a 37 [year-old], at that point he’ll be 39, would be the best version of himself for this role,” she said in the interview.

“I feel very confident that Vivek, as president, will be able to give Karthick and Arjun the society that they’re going to want when they’re starting to enter high school. One where their actions are rewarded based on their merit, not based on any other aspect of their appearance or their heritage, but really what they are able to do and give to other people and whether they are able to fulfil their responsibilities,” she said.

“He is extremely genuine. There is no version of him that I see that he does not put out in his speeches or in his interviews,” she added.

Earlier this month, in an interview with NBC News, Apoorva had made a rare public disagreement with her husband when she said that she does not regret taking the Covid-19 vaccine, unlike her partner who said that he is vaccinated but regrets that choice.

“For every person, that’s a different decision. So for my young, healthy husband, that’s a different decision than for me when I am taking care of patients who are cancer survivors, and they trust me to, you know, be in their airway every day,” she said, adding, “It’s a very different discussion. And I think giving people that autonomy is the most important part.”