In the aftermath of the Iowa Republican caucus on Monday, Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate who secured fourth place, has withdrawn from the race and thrown his support behind Donald Trump for the party's nomination.
Ramaswamy trailed behind the caucus frontrunner, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis who secured second place, and Nikki Haley. With 8 percent of the vote, Ramaswamy was acknowledged in Trump's victory speech, with the former President commending him for doing "a hell of a job."
Upon his withdrawal, Ramaswamy endorsed Trump for the presidency. "I will stick to the truth tonight," he declared, "the first hard truth, and this one is hard for me. I've got to admit this. But we've looked at it every which way, and I think it is true that we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight, and I think that's just a hard fact that we're gonna have to accept as a campaign."
Ramaswamy then addressed the future of his campaign and the country. "And the question is what do we do that is right for our country. And so Apoorva and I, we actually didn't make this contingency plan before, everybody told us to, but we said no we're not doing that. But we talked about it tonight, we took a little time in our apartment in Des Moines before coming here, to make some hard choices. And I wanted to make a couple of announcements tonight to get the business out of the way and then I want to tell you where we're going."
"As of this moment," he continued, "we're going to suspend this presidential campaign. And this is going to have to bethere's no path for me to be the next President absent things that we don't want to see happen in this country. And I think that I am very worried for our country, I think we are skating on thin ice as a nation. We have done everything in our part to make, and everyone of us in this room have done our part to save this country and I am so proud of everyone of you who have lifted us upbut we're a campaign founded on the truth and that's why we have made this decision today," he told supporters.
Ramaswamy then shifted his focus to the future, revealing his endorsement. "And I'm also making the decision that this has to be an America First President in that White House. As I've said since the beginning, there are two America First candidates in this race. And earlier tonight I called Donald Trump to tell him that I congratulated him on his victory and now going forward he will have my full endorsement for the presidency," Ramaswamy announced.
He then urged his supporters to join him in his efforts to elect Trump, who won the Iowa caucus with over 50 percent of the vote. "And so I'm gonna ask you to follow me in taking our America First movement to the next level," he said.
Throughout his campaign, Ramaswamy had been a vocal supporter of Trump, hailing him as the best President of the 21st century, pledging to back him against Biden's weaponized Department of Justice, and promising to withdraw from the ballots of any state that sought to remove Trump from the 2024 primary ballot over insurrection allegations.
Ramaswamy also announced his plans to join Trump on the campaign trail and appear with him at a rally in New Hampshire.
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