Vivek Ramaswamy slams 'woke industrial complex' and calls for unity at 'Vektoberfest'

WEST DES MOINES — On a chilly, windy Iowa night, people listened to country music, sipped on free beer and painted pumpkins while they waited to hear from Vivek Ramaswamy, the Ohio biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate.

The event, billed as Vektoberfest, was part campaign rally and part festival, complete with a selection of food trucks, face painting and live country and Americana covers from the Mud Dog Band.

At one entrance, attendees could purchase “Vektoberfest” T-shirts and other merch. Behind the table was a billboard with TRUTH splayed across it, laying out the 10 signature slogans Ramaswamy often ends his speeches with. They include such claims as: God is real, human flourishing requires fossil fuels, and capitalism lifts people up from poverty. Volunteers milled around the grounds asking attendees to sign commitments to caucus for Ramaswamy.

When Ramaswamy entered the amphitheater grounds, he spent an hour shaking hands and talking with voters as they posed for photos. It was the candidate’s first time in Iowa since mid-September, where he is polling in the single digits and has struggled to improve his position over competitors like South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

As the sun went down, Ramaswamy threw out hats with the word TRUTH to the crowd of a couple hundred people on hay bales at the Jamie Hurd Amphitheater.

The candidate who originally elevated his profile by railing against so-called “wokeness” in corporate America returned to those roots in his remarks on Thursday, criticizing what he called an “arranged marriage” between social justice and Wall Street.

“It was an arranged marriage between two strange bedfellows,” he said. “…And the net result of that act was the birth of a new monster. A new woke industrial complex.”

Ramaswamy, who has made headlines with far-flung policy proposals like firing 75 percent of federal workers and raising the minimum voting age to 25, reiterated on Thursday night his assertion that he can unify Americans around conservative principles.

“We’re hungry for a cause,” he said. “We are starved for purpose and meaning and identity.”

Ramaswamy capped the speech with a coordinated drone light show. The lights spelled out "This is our 1776 moment" as his remarks closed, then formed images of colonial soldiers, the American flag and Statue of Liberty.

Voters weigh Ramaswamy's message

Braeden and Devin Corrieri, who attended the event and took a photo with Ramaswamy, are not traditional Republican voters.

Devin said he received several ads for Vektoberfest before he knew much about Ramaswamy and his platform.

“It’s free food, free beer, why not?” he said about why he attended.

The two brothers said they don’t know if they will participate in the Republican caucus in January, but if he does, Braeden said, he would vote for Ramaswamy. Both independents, they said they did not vote in the presidential election in 2020 because they were not persuaded by President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump.

Braeden Corrieri said he is convinced by Ramaswamy’s promise to bring more people into the Republican Party and inspire a younger generation.

“We have 70-year-old, 80-year-old people (in government),” he said. “...We cannot have people that shouldn’t even be able to drive, nevermind be in the driver’s seat of this country.”

In 2024, both Braeden and Devin said they aren’t sure whether they’ll vote in the presidential election. Devin said he’d support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is posing a long-shot primary challenge to Biden, or Ramaswamy. But both said they would not vote for Biden or Trump.

“I would withhold my vote, I think neither of them are worthy of my vote,” Braeden said.

Andrew Baugher, a 44-year-old from Ankeny, sipped on a beer as he waited for the festivities at Vektoberfest to begin. He said he had not made up his mind on who he would caucus for, but he liked Ramaswamy’s stance on expanding oil and gas production.

He was a little more hesitant, he said, on Ramaswamy’s foreign policy. A former Marine, Baugher said he believes China and the U.S. are intertwined and must work together to a degree. Ramaswamy spent much of his remarks Thursday promising to “declare independence” from China and end trade relations.

“We’re intertwined very deeply and I know we can’t just cut them off,” Baugher said. “But I do think we need to take some pretty serious steps and let them know where they stand in the world according to us.”

Ramaswamy says protesters hit his car

Earlier on Thurdsay, Ramaswamy was campaigning in Grinnell and was met by a group of protesters who challenged him on his positions on climate change and public education. Then, Ramaswamy said on X, formerly Twitter, that protesters hit a campaign car.

But, according to a statement from Grinnell Police, the driver of the car said there was no evidence to suggest the driver, Celia Meagher, intentionally hit Ramaswamy’s car.

“Meagher stated she was not in the area to protest, she did not know who the vehicle she struck belonged to, she did not intentionally back into the vehicle, and she did not flee the scene of the accident,” the department said.

Ramaswamy's campaign spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin posted a photo and video on X that she said showed the car's driver yelling profanities and honking at Ramaswamy and campaign staff before driving off.