Ohio native Vivek Ramaswamy is trying to out-Trump Trump in the 2024 presidential race

Vivek Ramaswamy is a big fan of Donald Trump.

He also thinks he could do a better job as president in 2025.

Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati-area native who lives near Columbus, is among a handful of Republicans who have formally entered the 2024 presidential race. The GOP primary is expected to be crowded and contentious, and former President Trump remains the front-runner despite his recent indictment over hush money payments to an adult film star.

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As for Ramaswamy? He's peaked at 2% in recent polls of current and prospective Republican candidates, according to RealClearPolitics.

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But that hasn't stopped him from touring the country to woo voters in key primary states, such as Iowa and New Hampshire. The "Woke, Inc." author is a frequent guest on Fox News, fervent social media user and centers much of his message around dismantling bureaucracies, whether in corporate America or Washington, D.C.

Ohio Republicans say Ramaswamy has a platform that will catch the attention of primary voters, even if he doesn't come out on top in 2024. His Democratic critics call him extreme for peddling ideas such as ending affirmative action and eliminating the Department of Education.

Ramaswamy's elevator pitch: He'll go farther than Trump ever did or could today.

"I think that America First, even for many in the Trump base, they all recognize America First is bigger than one man," Ramaswamy said in an interview. "It does not belong to Trump. It does not belong to me. It does not belong to any individual. It is bigger than any of us. It is bigger than the Republican Party."

'You get to be an outsider once'

Ramaswamy, 37, grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Evendale and attended Princeton Junior High and St. Xavier High School. He boasts several accolades from his childhood, both academic and athletic, that culminated in valedictorian status when he graduated St. Xavier in 2003.

After high school, Ramaswamy attended Harvard to study biology and began honing his political views − along with his hip hop skills as the libertarian rapper "Da Vek." He graduated Yale Law School the same year as U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, who's also a native of southwest Ohio.

Taking a page from Trump, Ramaswamy is cultivating an outsider image that he said began with his childhood. The son of Indian immigrants remembers being the only Hindu kid at an all-boys Jesuit high school. He said his family didn't quite fit in with southwest Ohio in the 1990s.

"You get to be an outsider once," Ramaswamy said. "Trump today is not the same person he was in 2015. I'm, today, a lot more similar to Trump in 2015 than Trump today was to Trump in 2015."

Ramaswamy took his education to the world of biotech investing and founded the pharmaceutical research company Roivant Sciences in 2014. He later abandoned Roivant after he clashed with colleagues over how they should respond to the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020. Ramaswamy would not back a show of support for the Black Lives Matters movement.

Now, he runs Strive Asset Management, an investment firm that aims to persuade companies to stay out of politics and social issues. His third book debuted Tuesday: "Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For."

Can Ramaswamy win a 2024 primary?

On the campaign trail, Ramaswamy says he would end affirmative action through executive order. He wants to send the U.S. military to the southern border and "annihilate the drug cartels." He believes America should abandon what he calls the "climate cult" and unleash fracking, coal and nuclear energy to spur economic growth.

"In the race to the bottom that is the Republican presidential primary, Vivek Ramaswamy is just another extreme Republican pushing a dangerous agenda that is out of touch with working families in Ohio," Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Walters said.

Just last week, Ramaswamy sparred with former CNN anchor Don Lemon over Black history and Second Amendment rights. The exchange frustrated CNN leaders who were already weary of Lemon, according to the New York Times, and Ramaswamy happily accepted credit for his sudden departure from the network on Monday.

All of this is boosting Ramaswamy's profile, but whether he can win the GOP primary − or even make it competitive − remains to be seen. University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven said Republicans have struggled to stand apart from Trump without alienating the GOP's most popular politician.

If Ramaswamy does well, Niven said, the race could make him a greater force in Republican politics or even lead to a cabinet position in the next GOP administration. He contends the worst outcome for Ramaswamy will be that he's simply forgotten.

"He’s an interesting test case of somebody who really, really knows the lyrics well, but isn’t the best-known performer," Niven said.

Ohio Republicans see a place for Ramaswamy in the GOP's future. Hamilton County GOP chairman Russell Mock believes he could attract more young voters to the party. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou cast him as a "powerful thought leader" who's willing to tackle tough issues.

Ramaswamy was a rumored candidate for Ohio's 2024 U.S. Senate race, and he said that would made sense if he wanted to launch a career in politics. But for now, at least, he says that's not the plan.

"I think the presidency offers a unique perch to really lead the nation out of this national cultural identity crisis that we're in, in a way that certainly being one of 100 of the US Senate wouldn't, but even being a leader through the private sector, through thought leadership, through starting companies wouldn't quite achieve either," Ramaswamy said. "I see an opportunity to meet that moment in a way that Reagan did in 1980."

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 2024 presidential election: Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?