Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican presidential contender, promised to defend Trump’s “America First” agenda
Donald Trump during his first visit as President to Chicago had made pointed remarks against the nation’s third largest city as a haven for criminals and a national embarrassment, reported abcnews.go.com.
Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, at a recent town hall, sat beside ex-convicts on the city’s South Side and promised to defend Trump’s “America First” agenda. Ramaswamy, the report noted, a child of Indian immigrants, found a flicker of acceptance in a room full of Black and brown voters.
The audience nodded when Ramaswamy said that “anti-Black racism is on the rise”. He said later, “Yes, we criticize the Democratic Party, and for good reason, for talking a big game about helping Black Americans without doing very much to actually show up and help on the ground. But we on our side also talk a big game about America First without actually bringing all of America along with us.”
Race has emerged as a central issue — and a delicate one — in the 2024 presidential contest as the GOP’s primary field so far features four candidates of colour, making it among the most racially diverse ever.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the first Black senator in the South since Reconstruction, entered the contest earlier in the month. He joined Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina Governor and UN ambassador who is of Indian descent, and Larry Elder, an African American raised in Los Angeles’ South Central neighbourhood who came to national attention as a candidate in the failed effort two years ago to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is of Cuban descent, says he may enter the race in the coming days.
Most of the candidates of colour are considered underdogs in a field currently dominated by Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Yet the party’s increasingly diverse leadership, backed by evolving politics on issues such as immigration, suggest the GOP may have a real opportunity in 2024 to further weaken the Democrats’ grip on African Americans and Latinos. Those groups have been among the most loyal segments of the Democratic coalition since Republican leaders fought against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Republican presidential contenders of 2024 walk a fine line when addressing race with the GOP’s overwhelmingly white primary electorate.
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“It is certainly true that there are multiple shades of melanin in this Republican race.”
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“I think that in some ways dispels the myth that much of the left will perpetuate that this is somehow you know, a racist party or whatever drivel.”
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“But personally, I could care less what someone’s skin color is. I think what matters is, what are they going to accomplish? What’s their vision?”
— Ramaswamy
In most cases, the diverse candidates in the Republican field play down the significance of their racial heritage. They all deny the existence of systemic racism in the United States even while discussing their own personal experience with racial discrimination. They oppose policies around policing, voting rights and education that are specifically designed to benefit disadvantaged communities and combat structural racism.
With few exceptions, the Republican candidates who have entered the presidential primary field have embraced the GOP’s “anti-woke” agenda, which is based on the notion that policies designed to address systemic inequities related to race, gender or sexuality are inherently unfair or even dangerous.
In her announcement video, Haley noted that she was raised in a small town in South Carolina as “the proud daughter of Indian immigrants — not black, not white, I was different.” Like Scott, she has defended the GOP against charges of racism. “Some think our ideas are not just wrong, but racist and evil,” Haley said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
One attendee at Ramaswamy’s town hall waved a flyer for a “Biden boycott” because the Democratic President had not signalled whether he supports reparations for the descendants of slaves, although Biden did back a congressional effort to study the issue. None of the GOP’s presidential candidates supports reparations, either.
“It is certainly true that there are multiple shades of melanin in this Republican race,” Ramaswamy said in an interview before the event. “I think that in some ways dispels the myth that much of the left will perpetuate that this is somehow you know, a racist party or whatever drivel.” He added: “But personally, I could care less what someone’s skin color is. I think what matters is, what are they going to accomplish? What’s their vision?”
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