Vivek Ramaswamy Draws Support, Attacks in the American Heartland
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 16 Oct, 2025

A Republican likely to become the first Indian and Hindu Governor of Ohio fields outrage from some Christians of his own party, including the son of Nikki Haley.



 Ramaswamy fields a question about his religion at the Iowa State Fair

Vivek Ramaswamy started his political career as arguably the least experienced candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race. Of the 10 contenders, which included Donald Trump, Ramaswamy was the only one who had never once held or even run for any political office. 

There’s a term that typically describes his stature in a field like that: An “also-ran”, per Merriam-Webster, is a candidate “of little importance especially competitively.”

And, yet, Ramaswamy garnered almost 100,000 votes. 

While well short of the amount needed to secure the Presidential nomination, the biotech pharma CEO’s performance turned him into a household name in the political world and has put him on the precipice of becoming the next Governor of his native Ohio.

Ramaswamy’s success came by and large from his ability to separate himself from a pack of candidates that more closely resembled the typical Republican politician. In a field dominated by mostly old white men, Ramaswamy was a fiery young Indian American with a non-political background.

But despite all of Ramaswamy’s success, some of the very characteristics that have allowed him to stand-out have drawn scorn from members of his own party. 

Namely, his Hindu religion

An attendee at the TPUSA conference in Montana presses Vivek on his religion

The Iowa State Fair

I first heard Ramawamy speak at the Iowa State Fair in my hometown of Des Moines in 2023. He took the outdoor hay bale-adorned stage shortly after former Vice President Mike Pence.

A classic part of Ramaswamy’s standard stump speech was the recitation of his “Ten Truths,” a concise list of conservative talking points on race, immigration, and gender, and the free market. Notably, of all issues, he ended on religion:

“Number one: God is real.”

It was a fascinating tactic. In one fell swoop, he seemed to both address a reservation that voters may have about him while still shying away from the details of it.

Ramaswamy concluded his remarks and moved on to the Q&A portion of the event, where he was asked about what junk food he had consumed at the Fair and laughingly invited his wife, a medical professional, onstage to talk about some of their unhealthy favorites.

But the next question was less jovial. An older White man in the crowd stood up and raised his hand:

“Your first tenant is ‘God is real.’ What do you mean by that?”

Ramaswamy's answer was no different from one you would hear from any of the hundreds of Christian Republican candidates who run for office every year. 

“I mean that we are one nation under a single God. I believe that there is a higher power. I believe that there is one true God. I believe that we are a nation built under God. I believe that we are all equal because we are all made in the image of God.”

The difference, of course, is that Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t Christian.

Your average American could probably tell you two things about Hinduism:

Belief in multiple Gods

Belief that cows are sacred, which means no consumption of beef.

While, frankly, the latter feels more disqualifying at a place like the Iowa State Fair, which serves a dish called the “hot beef sundae,” it was no surprise that Ramaswamy might get pushback on the former.

It is therefore both surprising and understandable that while his answer sought to affirm that his views were likely no different from those in the crowd, not once did he mention Hinduism explicitly.

That’s not a criticism, just an observation.

As a fellow Indian American, though I am closer to Sikhism than Hinduism, I left the exchange pleasantly surprised to see Ramaswamy hold his own in front of a crowd like that. While I would be hard pressed to find an issue that I agree with him on, I also hope to live in a world where one's religion, along with gender, race, or ethnicity, or sexual orientation, should not disqualify them from becoming president.

At the same time, I wondered: is that's what’s really happening here? 

Is it that they could support the candidate regardless of his religion, or that they left believing that his religion was the same as theirs?; that greater knowledge of Hinduism would in fact be disqualifying in the eyes of Republican primary voters. Not to mention, say Islam or Sikhism or a number of other religions.

Now, two years later, the issue has come up again. This time, in a much more pronounced way.

Turning Point USA

When Vivek Ramaswamy solicited audience questions at a conservative event for Turning Point USA in Montana last week, he was not asked about his junk food habits.

“Jesus Christ is God, and there is no other God,” one young White male attendee told the Ohio gubernatorial candidate. “How can you represent the constituents of Ohio who are 64 percent Christian if you are not a part of that faith?” He continued, noting that Ramaswamy was “bringing change to this country” by representing a different religion and culture that were not what our founders intended.

It was far from the only hostile question about Ramasamy’s religion.

A female student asked Ramaswamy why he chose to “masquerade as a Christian.” Another audience member pressed him on “polytheistic ideology.”

But Ramaswamy responded with the same intensity of his inquisitors.

“I don’t call myself a Christian. I call myself a Hindu,” he affirmed against accusations of masquerading

“I’m not running to be a pastor. I’m running to be governor of Ohio,” he shot back.

And as for the questions of polytheism, Ramaswamy noted that he is an "ethical monotheist,” citing “the Vedanta tradition of Advaita philosophy” which affirms belief in one true God.

But he went even further, noting that as a Chritian, the young man questioning him likely believes in the holy trinity. “That doesn’t make you a polytheist, does it?” Ramaswamy asked.

And, before the event was over, he delivered one final moment of humiliation to his detractors, inviting them to come onstage and read article 6, clause 3 of the US Constitution: ​​“No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Now there was the fire-brand personality that shot him out of obscurity in the first place.

Race v Religion

In instances like the Montana event, it can be hard to separate actual ideology — be it political or religious — from pure unadulterated racism. While I would be quick to ascribe the ordeal largely to the latter, a voice weighed in a day later that further scrambled the battle lines:

“Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. Comparing the Holy Trinity to your 330 million gods is blasphemous, disrespectful, and a slap in the face to every Christian. If you’re gonna run for governor in a state that is Christian, have the decency to learn our faith and not slander it”

The Tweet came from fellow Indian American Nalin Haley, the son of former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

For context, Ramaswamy and the senior Haley locked horns during the 2024 nomination race, lobbing insults at one another that generally went beyond standard political differences. Like Haley calling Ramaswamy “scum.”

The tweet was a reminder of the ways in which the identities we latch onto can supersede one another.

Maybe one would have expected a fellow Indian American to have Ramaswamy’s back.  But at the same time, one might be surprised that Ramaswamy’s ideology had led him to a place where members of his own political movement could express such outward hostility towards his identity.

And to be clear, this is not an issue specific to the Republican party. The day after Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim, secured the Democratic nomination in the New York mayoral race, Democratic Senator Kristen Gillibrand made unfounded claims that Mamdani had referenced “global jihad” on the campaign trail. 

I first learned about Ramaswamy’s Montana exchange when more than a couple Hindu friends texted videos, expressing their amusement by it

No, they didn’t want to see any religious bigotry on display, particularly not against their own. But they felt some sense of justice seeing it lobbed publicly at a man who they feel has cozied up just a little too close to those who ridicule their and Ramaswamy’s shared religion. 

And as awful as the comments by his Montana critics were, there is something to be said about the upside of hearing them out loud so that he could publicly respond to them.

Regardless of how one feels about Ramaswamy’s political view, the ability of a Hindu to rise to the ranks of Ohio governor would in and of itself be a massive step forward for every American adhering different religious traditions.

Maybe one day soon we’ll even see an Ohio Governor who believes in multiple Gods.