Iowa Treasurer, Republican senator back Vivek Ramaswamy

With his stock rising in national surveys, Indian American Republican presidential aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy received another boost with endorsements from two top party politicians Iowa Treasurer Roby Smith and Indiana Senator Mike Braun.

“Vivek Ramaswamy is a businessman, a fiscal conservative, and a champion of the taxpayer,” Smith stated Monday becoming the first official elected statewide in first-in-the-nation caucus state, to weigh in with an endorsement, the Hill reported.

“He shares my ideals and the ideals of many Iowa families and small business owners,” Smith said of the 38-year-old Biotech entrepreneur “As President, he will reduce spending, cut taxes, and work with the private sector to grow jobs and the economy.”

“I am proud to announce today that I am endorsing Vivek Ramaswamy for President of the United States, and I encourage my fellow Iowans to join our team,” he was quoted as saying by Ramaswamy’s campaign.

Most elected officials in the Hawkeye State have so far declined to publicly endorse at this stage in the Republican presidential race given Iowa’s role as the first-in-the-nation caucus state, the Hill noted.

Ramswamy’s endorsement, however, comes as an NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released Monday shows him trailing other 2024 GOP rivals in the race.

READ: We need an outsider in the White House: Vivek Ramaswamy (July 11, 2023)

The poll placed him in seventh place at 4 percent, with former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) largely dominating the field at 42 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

But national surveys cited by the Hill show Ramaswamy performing better. An Emerson College Polling survey released last week showed Trump in first place at 56 percent, followed next by DeSantis and Ramaswamy at 10 percent each.

Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who says he likes the policies of Trump but has held back from officially endorsing his campaign for president, touted Ramaswamy on Monday as an exciting candidate who could turn around the nation’s financial situation.

“I think clearly the guy that is different that espouses a lot of what Trump did would be Vivek Ramaswamy, because you’re going to have to have somebody that has a business background, is entrepreneurial,” Braun told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in an interview Monday.

“That’s the only chance we turn the biggest business around in the world and get it to where we’re not borrowing from our kids and grandkids,” he added.

The Indiana senator touted Ramaswamy when asked a hypothetical question about whom he would like to see win the Republican nomination if Trump, who is dominating the rest of the field in national and state polls, fell short of clinching it.

Braun, who is running for governor in his home state, praised Ramaswamy as a candidate who could help solve the nation’s fiscal problems. “I think that’s why he’s resonating,” he said.

Asked by CNBC anchor if Trump could win the general election, Braun acknowledged that Democrats are helping him in the Republican presidential primary because they think he would be a weak candidate in November 2024.

“I think whatever they try politically through the indictments and so forth, that strengthens him, not weakens him,” he said of the Democrats and what many Republicans view as politically motivated prosecutions of the former president.

When told that Democrats think Biden can beat Trump, Braun acknowledged: “They are tabulating it that way.”

Last week, Ramaswamy received a big shout out from Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO.

“He is a very promising candidate,” Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, after watching Ramaswamy’s interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.

He also reposted a snippet of the interview on X. In the 45-minute interview, Ramaswamy, spoke about the “void” he is trying to fill in American politics.

Ramaswamy also argued that US is at a point where the “government and the broader establishment believe that the citizens of the nation cannot be trusted with the truth.”