DES MOINES, Iowa Vivek Ramaswamy may have stopped spending money on TV ads, but he isn’t done stumping in Iowa. The GOP candidate plans to make six stops by the end of Friday, mostly in Southeast Iowa.
With fewer than three weeks until the GOP caucus, Ramaswamy is looking to complete another 99-county tour by January 2nd. That’s on top of the full Grassley he just completed last week.
“We will have done over 330 events in Iowa by the time of the Iowa caucus,” Ramaswamy said. “Which is more than the rest of the entire presidential field combined.”
Now that he has changed his strategy and stopped spending any money on TV ads, Ramaswamy tells Iowa’s News Now that his campaign is actually spending more money; it is just using new resources.
“Traditional TV advertising in this race in particular’s proven fake, it’s fallen flat by everybody,” Ramaswamy said. “The other candidates spent collectively $200 million or nearly that, most of it, in Iowa just in this race. It doesn’t change the dynamics of this race.”
After news of the shifting strategy, frontrunner Donald Trump took to Truth Social and said he expects Ramaswamy to endorse him and that Vivek is a good man who isn’t done yet
” I expect him to endorse me, when I’m the nominee. So look, if Trump’s the nominee he has my full support,” Ramaswamy said. “I’ve said that and I expect his full support if I’m the nominee as I expect to be. It’s going to take an America first candidate to lead this forward. I respect President Trump and I think he respects me . The fact is, we’re the two outsider- businessmen in this race.
Some have criticized Ramaswamy ending his TV ads, implying his campaign may be in trouble, but the presidential hopeful said voters are in for a surprise on caucus night.
Among likely GOP caucus-goers, 5% would pick him as their first choice, according to the latest Des Moines Register poll.
“Our supporters are first time caucus-goers and they have not been polled,” Ramaswamy said. “Many of them are telling us broadly in our grassroots efforts that they’re gonna come out and caucus that night. You see this in Iowa before, you’re gonna see it again. A major Iowa surprise that turns this race upside down on January 15th.”
