“Lose Yourself” in Iowa
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy surprises with rap performance during campaign appearance
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is running for the 2024 presidential nomination
© Stefani Reynolds / AFP
During a campaign appearance at the Iowa State Fair, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy performed a surprising singing performance. The 38-year-old biotech millionaire grabbed the mic and rapped to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” — and apparently not for the first time.
Actually, presidential candidates traditionally use the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines for the election campaign. But Vivek Ramaswamy apparently wanted to demonstrate another talent – namely his musical talent. During a performance on Saturday morning, the Republican picked up the microphone and rapped to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”
Vivek Ramaswamy is a fan of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’
The 38-year-old biotech millionaire previously revealed to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds that the Eminem song is his favorite song to play at campaign events because he’s “young and rowdy.” As a student at Harvard, he also rapped about libertarian politics under the stage name “Da Vek”. He often sang Eminem at university events. In an interview with Politico in July, he once said, “I honestly saw myself making it big in American capitalism, and that’s why Eminem’s story appealed to me.”
The hopeless candidate has seen a surprise upswing in the polls of late, ranking 3rd behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The statistics site Fivethirtyeight has calculated an average of 7.5 percent for him from numerous surveys. Trump has 53.7 percent and DeSantis 14.3 percent. The son of Indian immigrants is generally favored by younger Republicans. At 38, he is the youngest candidate running for the Republican nomination.
In terms of content, Ramaswamy is a radical among radicals. As with Trump, this sometimes stretches far into the realm of conspiracy myths: Without being able to cite any evidence for this, he spread the allegation, put forward by Russia, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had treated religious minorities, including Jews, badly. He wants to raise the voting age to 25, except for members of the military, emergency workers and people who pass the test for naturalization. Ramaswamy praises unbridled capitalism and berates left-wing identity politics as the cause of all evil. His rejection of the state goes so far as to want to abolish the FBI and the IRS. Within the Republican Party, which has moved far to the right, he serves basic political needs.
Presidential Election 2024
Lots of men and only one woman: These Republicans want to move into the White House
Take a look at the photo gallery: A whole pool of Republicans has already made their presidential ambitions public. The clear favorite for the candidacy is Donald Trump, who clearly leads all polls. There is only one woman among the applicants.
Sources: CNN, Twitter, political, desmoinesregister.com, projects.fivethirtyeight.com