Meet The 3 Indian-Americans Looking To Upstage Trump in US Presidential Race

Washington:

While Donald Trump seems to be the favourite to face off against US President Joe Biden in 2024, some India-American leaders are looking to upstage Trump to “make America great again”.

Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Hirsh Vardhan Singh will contest against former US president Donald Trump, who is leading in the race for the Republican Party’s nomination for 2024 despite the legal challenges he is facing.

Republicans will meet in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from July 15-18, 2024, for their national convention to formally select their party’s next presidential nominee.

Here are the three Indian-American in the US Republican presidential nomination contest:

Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s first ambassador to the United Nations is the only woman in the Republican primary contest.

Casting herself as a perennially underestimated underdog who has never lost an election, the 51-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants has spoken proudly of her time in the Trump administration.

But she has criticised her former boss’s post-election crusade to relitigate debunked claims of voter fraud that he falsely alleges cost him the 2020 election.

Even though she features low on most polls, she has been consistently raking in donations. The super PAC supporting Haley, Stand For America Fund Inc., raised $18.7 million from April through June, bringing her overall total to $26 million. Haley also got support from some deep-pocketed GOP donors, including billionaires Kenneth Langone, Alice Walton and Kenneth Fisher, who all donated $6,600.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy entered the US Republican presidential nomination contest as an outsider in February but has now jumped to no. 3, behind just former president Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.   

According to a Reuters-Ipsos poll, Ramaswamy has the support of 9% of leaders within the Republican party. Trump commands a staggering 47%, well above the 19% for his rival Ron DeSantis.

Ramaswamy’s parents migrated to the United States from Kerala and worked at a General Electric plant in Ohio.

The 37-year-old has gained global recognition for his innovative approach to drug development and commitment to transforming healthcare. He is running for the President’s office with a promise to “put merit back” and end dependence on China.

He took in $7.7 million in the second quarter, including $5.4 million that came from his own pockets. Since launching his campaign, he’s put $16 million of his own money into the effort.

Hirsh Vardhan Singh

Hirsh Vardhan Singh, an engineer, has also joined the crowded US Presidential race to “take back our country and prioritise citizens”.

In a video message posted on Twitter, Mr Singh, 38, said that he is a “lifelong Republican” and “America First” conservative who worked to restore a conservative wing of the New Jersey Republican Party.

He also called himself the “only pureblood candidate” because he “never gave in to the Covid vaccinations.” He ran in the Republican primaries for governor of New Jersey in 2017 and 2021, for a House seat in 2018 and for Senate in 2020 but was unsuccessful in winning the Republican Party’s nomination.