Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy expressed his disappointment when other GOP candidates chose not to follow his decision to pull their names from the Colorado primary ballot in solidarity with former President Trump. He declared that the gesture is his way of “leading by example.”
In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, Ramaswamy criticized the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove Trump from the state’s ballot, calling it “unconstitutional” and a “flagrant violation” of the election process in the United States.
The esteemed entrepreneur and Republican figure joined the show, along with his wife Dr. Apoorva Ramaswamy, to explain his decision to remove his own name from the ballot and to discuss the young vote.
“If every Republican in the Colorado GOP primary also says, ‘We’re not participating,’ then this blatant act of election interference has no impact,” Ramaswamy stated. “So I wanted to lead by example to say that if they are going to forcibly remove Trump’s name from that ballot, then I would voluntarily remove myself too, and called on Chris Christie and Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis to do the same thing. I have to say, I was disappointed to hear radio silence or worse from those other candidates who said they wanted to still collect their delegates.”
Ramaswamy maintained that candidates pledging to pull their names from the ballot would help the Republican Party “solve this problem.” He emphasized that he is running to “protect a constitutional republic” and that this is the first principle the party should uphold.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling last Tuesday disqualified Trump from the state’s ballot on the grounds of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, citing his conduct during the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021.