Vivek Ramaswamy leads straw poll for Trump’s VP pick

Indian American biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential contender is tied with South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem as former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick in a new straw poll.

Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu American in the US Congress, came second in the straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual gathering of right-wing activists, lobbyists and businesses in Maryland – dominated in recent years by the Trump faithful.

The results, which included 17 possible candidates, were announced on Saturday night. Noem and Ramaswamy both received 15% followed by former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard with 9%

New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott got 8% each followed by Florida congressman Byron Donalds with 7%.

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard on Trump’s VP shortlist (February 21, 2024)

Five of the top six vote-getters addressed the CPAC audience on Thursday and Friday in what became a de facto auditioning session for the number-two nod.

Scott, considered to be one of the leading contenders, was campaigning for Trump in his home state of South Carolina, which held its Republican primary on Saturday, and didn’t make the trip to the convention.

Ramaswamy ran for the Republican presidential nomination this year with the novel strategy of defending and effusively praising the man most likely to defeat him in this contest.

Opinion | Vivek Ramaswamy will transform conservative politics in America (February 3, 2024)

Ramaswamy dropped out of the race after finishing a distant fourth in January’s Iowa caucuses to join Trump at campaign rallies.

At CPAC’s Friday night Ronald Reagan dinner, Ramaswamy said Trump would lead conservatives to victory in what he called a war for the future of America. “There is no compromise on one side of this war or the other,” he said.

Former Democratic congresswoman Gabbard has been on an eight-year political journey that took her from the Bernie Sanders left to Donald Trump’s doorstep.

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After backing the democratic socialist Vermont senator against Hillary Clinton in 2016, she ran for president in 2020, championing liberal issues like government-run healthcare, free college tuition and gun control. Now she’s backing Trump and will be headlining a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach home in March.

“This is a man who is a fighter,” she said at her CPAC speech on Thursday evening. “His strength and resilience can only come from one place… his sincere love and concern for the future of our country.”

She also warned of a growing threat to American democracy – but the danger, she argued, came from the left’s prosecution of Trump.

The Hill notes that “though the CPAC straw poll is likely to have little weight on which running mate Trump chooses, the poll’s results are likely to increase buzz around the first-place finishers.”