Ramaswamy’s failed campaign offers warnings for Republicans

Republicans could learn a thing or two from Vivek Ramaswamy.

His failed presidential campaign, I mean.

The entrepreneur announced late Monday that he was suspending his campaign after his weak showing in Iowa’s GOP caucuses. And he immediately backed Donald Trump’s candidacy. On that note, I think Ramaswamy’s campaign was chock-full of lessons about where things stand in GOP politics, so let’s do a post-mortem of sorts.

Here are my top takeaways from the Ramaswamy campaign.

For anyone hoping that the 38-year-old Ramaswamy might represent an insurgent youth movement in the GOP — one that could rival Trump’s movement — this campaign must have been wildly disappointing. The Indian American millennial trailed Trump, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis among voters ages 17 to 29 in the Iowa caucuses, according to entrance polling. And he barely edged out Haley among voters who are 30 to 44 years old (his own age group).

I predicted Ramaswamy’s struggles with young voters, but it’s remarkable how a candidate so reliant on performative exhibitions of youth and virility (from awkward raps to shirtless posts) could fail so mightily at winning over young people — especially at a time when news outlets have been laser-focused on some candidates’ age and mental competence and voter concerns about both.

I find it noteworthy that Ramaswamy and Haley, two Indian American candidates who have made a point of downplaying the role that racism plays in American society, have both faced bigotry in their own campaigns — undermining their claims.

Trump fueled racist conspiracy theories about Haley’s eligibility to be president, mirroring the “birther” claims he has made about Barack Obama and others. And NBC News reported that Ramaswamy and his wife faced plenty of questions from Iowa voters about their race, ethnicity and religion in the lead-up to Monday’s caucuses. Conservatives may want to ignore or obscure discussions about racism, but as Ramaswamy and Haley have discovered, that’s easier said than done.

Ramaswamy’s campaign never ceased being loyal to Trump. In fact, I think he gave GOPers a glimpse of how far Trump’s supporters are willing to go to shield the four-times-indicted former president from accountability and criticism. Ramaswamy, who paid millions of dollars into his own campaign, frequently used his platform to praise Trump, back Trump’s conspiratorial lies about the 2020 election and emulate Trump’s brash — often bigoted — communication style.

Ramaswamy tended to behave like Trump’s attack dog, rather than his opponent. He’s a prime indicator of how much the GOP has changed since 2016, when Trump’s primary rivals were eager to attack him — not protect him.