An American businessman named Vivek Ramaswamy is running for president of the republican party in the year 2024. Ramaswamy was born to Indian immigrants in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He received a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Harvard College and then graduated from Yale Law School with a J.D. Ramaswamy announced his bid in February 2023 to be the Republican Party’s nominee for president in the 2024 election.
Forbes assessed his net worth to be $630 million in April 2023; his money is derived from biotech and financial ventures. His family is a Tamil-speaking Kerala’s Brahmin family. His father, VG Ramaswamy, is a National Institute of Technology alumnus who worked for General Electric as an engineer and patent attorney. His mother, Geetha Ramaswamy, a Mysore medical school graduate, worked as a geriatric psychiatrist. His parents immigrated from Palakkad district in Kerala.
In a Saturday conversation with Iowa citizens, Vivek Ramaswamy suggested scrapping Juneteenth, calling it a “useless” celebration.
Also known as Emanciapaion Day, Juneteenth is a holiday observed on June 19 to honor the release of slaves in the US. The holiday was first observed in Texas, where enslaved people were declared free on that date in 1865 as a result of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, following the conclusion of the Civil War.
However, he shared a video commemorating the day on social media less than two months ago.
Ramaswamy, a GOP presidential contender, explained his strategy for establishing a national voting holiday on Saturday. He suggested eliminating an existing holiday to make room for the new one.
“Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up,” Ramaswamy said to a cheering audience gathered at a welding shop in this area.
When NBC News questioned Ramaswamy about whether or not he thought Juneteenth was a “useless” festival, he replied, “I basically do.”
“It was declared a holiday as a result of political pressure. Because of George Floyd’s passing, it was a political hostage situation, Ramaswamy claimed.
Ramaswamy was slammed by one of his rivals, biracial former Texas representative Will Hurd, for saying he “hopes to cancel a holiday that celebrates equality and freedom.”