Vivek Ramaswamy advocates national holiday for single-day voting

Indian American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has advocated single-day voting on a national election day holiday by removing another “useless” or “made up” holiday like Juneteenth.

“Single day voting, on Election Day. We will make Election Day a holiday. Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up,” he told voters at an event in Iowa, the key early-voting caucus state, on Saturday

READ: Christian preacher denounces young voters supporting Vivek Ramaswamy, warns of ‘Fight with God’ (July 25, 2023)

“We can’t have like every day be a holiday, but we can cancel one of the other ones and make Election Day a holiday, paper ballots, and government-issued voter ID that matches the voter file,” he was quoted as saying by NBC News.

Here's the way forward on election integrity:
1. Single Day Voting
2. Make Election Day a National Holiday
3. Paper Ballots
4. Government-issued voter ID matched to the identification on file.
If we achieve this, I will lead *all Americans* regardless of political party to move… pic.twitter.com/86845zMdOW

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 8, 2023

Asked whether he thought Juneteenth was a “useless” holiday, Ramaswamy replied, “I basically do.” He, however, declined to call Memorial Day and Veterans Day too as “useless” holidays.

“I stand with the presumption of time-tested traditions,” he said. “I think that if we made a national commemorative holiday for everything that’s important that’s happened in our history, we’d have no working days left. But I think the spirit of Juneteenth we already channel into other holidays like Martin Luther King Day. Like Presidents’ Day.”

“We shouldn’t have redundant holidays that celebrate overlapping purposes. It should have a distinctive purpose,” he continued. “I think — let’s be honest. The reason for making it a holiday was under political duress. It was a political hostage situation on the back of the death of George Floyd and I think that should not be how we create holidays.”

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

Ramaswamy’s stance comes two months after he wrote a post on Twitter where he stated that Juneteenth is a “celebration of the American dream.”

“We don’t just look back and flog ourselves. That’s besides the point,” he said. “What we celebrate is how far we’ve come, and as a first-generation American myself, you better believe that I’m proud of it. Happy Juneteenth, everybody.”

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers delivered news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, two months after the end of the Civil War and two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

In June 2021, Congress passed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday and President Joe Biden promptly signed the bill into law.

Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas — a rival presidential candidate and one of the highest-profile Black Republicans in the country — blasted Ramaswamy over his remarks, telling NBC News that the contender “hopes to cancel a holiday that celebrates equality and freedom.”

“His gimmicks and shtick aren’t serious,” Hurd added.