Will we see a desi in the White House? The 3 Indian-Americans vying for 2024

There’s still a year to go for the United States presidential elections, but the race is already on with a number of contenders. While Donald Trump seems to be the frontrunner from the Republican side and challenge Democrats’ Joe Biden in 2024, there are others who pose to stand in his way. Late last week, this pool of contenders became larger when Indian-American engineer Hirsh Vardhan Singh announced his decision to throw his hat into the ring. With this, there are now three desi candidates in the race for 2024, seeking to make their mark and contribute to the vision of “making America great again.” As the race gathers pace, here’s a closer look at who these three candidates are and if they truly stand a chance. Hirsh Vardhan Singh [caption id=“attachment_12938342” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Hirsh Vardhan Singh proudly calls himself a lifelong Republican” and “America First” conservative. Image Courtesy: @HirshSingh/Twitter[/caption] On 28 July, Hirsh Vardhan Singh declared his candidacy for the 2024 US presidential elections. Making his intent known on the now rebranded Twitter platform, X, the 38-year-old called himself a “lifelong Republican” and a strong proponent of the “America First” conservative ideology.

I'm entering the race for President.https://t.co/OEHCSYOdvK pic.twitter.com/RyxW4sKMSW

— Hirsh Vardhan Singh (@HirshSingh) July 27, 2023

In his three-minute long declaration, he proudly states, “I am the only pure blood candidate for president because I never gave in to the COVID vaccinations. Even New Jersey’s Democrat Senate President labelled me as ‘Trump on steroids’.” He added in his video, “There’s an all-out attack on American family values, parental rights and the marketplace of ideas and open debates. We need strong leadership to reverse the changes that have occurred in the past few years and restore American values. That is why I have decided to seek the Republican Party’s nomination for the 2024 election for the office of president of the United States,” he said. But who exactly is Singh? The 38-year-old is the son of Indian immigrant parents. He has earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2009. After his education, according to a report by The Federal, he assisted his father in running their family firm, which specialised in missile defence, satellite navigation, and aviation security. According to his own website, he has worked as an engineer and federal contractor. Moreover, he describes himself as a “magnet for conservatives, libertarians, Indian-, Filipino-, Hispanic-, and Black-American voters.” He joined politics in 2017 running for governor of New Jersey. He received a mere 9.9 per cent of the vote then, placing third in the election. Subsequently, he ran unsuccessfully for US Senate and Congress in 2018, US Senate in 2020, and governor in 2021. He became known for his unsuccessful campaigns and volatile personality. While calling himself a Trump fan and a MAGA supporter from day one, he added that “America needs more.” For the 2024 election, the self-declared ‘strong-willed Republican’ positioned himself as a candidate with the necessary energy and technical expertise to lead America into the future. Vivek Ramaswamy [caption id=“attachment_12938482” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy waves to the attendees at the Republican Party of Iowa’s Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa. Ramaswamy entered the US Republican presidential nomination contest as an outsider in February. File image/Reuters[/caption] Apart from Singh, another Indian-American who joined the race is Vivek Ramaswamy . The 37-year-old tech entrepreneur announced his candidacy in February. Born to Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy is a native of southwest Ohio. His mother was a geriatric psychiatrist and his father worked as an engineer and a patent lawyer at General Electric. According to The New Yorker, after his education, Ramaswamy founded the pharmaceutical research company Roivant Sciences in 2014 where he made hundreds of millions of dollars. He is also the executive chairman of Strive, an asset management firm that aims to convince companies to shun politics and social issues. Forbes in 2016 had pegged Ramaswamy’s net worth at $600 million. Dubbed the “CEO of Anti-Woke Inc” by The New Yorker, Ramaswamy is the author of the book Woke, Inc: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam. The businessman has been vocal against “woke capitalism” and since announcing his candidature, he’s put $16 million of his own money into the effort. Ramaswamy’s campaign focuses on innovative drug development and healthcare transformation, vowing to restore meritocracy and reduce reliance on China. Nikki Haley [caption id=“attachment_12938502” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Republican presidential candidate and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley greets audience members during a campaign stop at The Moon Bakery and Cafe in Lincoln, New Hampshire. File image/Reuters[/caption] Among the desis in the US presidential race, Nikki Haley was the first to announce her intention to run. Born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa in Bamberg, South Carolina in 1972, Haley has served as former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s first United Nations ambassador. In 2010, Haley, then 38, was elected as governor of South Carolina and made history as not only the first woman and the first person of colour to lead the state, but also the youngest governor of any state at the time. She grabbed headlines in 2015, when she explained her decision to call for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol after a massacre by a white supremacist at an African American church in Charleston. Her political career took an interesting turn when Donald J Trump selected her as his ambassador to the United Nations. According to a Politico report, she had three conditions to accept the role. She told him, so she didn’t want to work for anybody else — she wanted to be in Trump’s Cabinet and to work directly with Trump. She called herself “a policy girl” and wanted to be in the room when national security decisions were made. And she insisted she wasn’t going to be “a wallflower” and needed “to be able to say what I think.” He agreed to all three. “And he was true to his word,” she’s often said since. During her time as US ambassador to UN, she was the face of the Trump administration’s policies on Israel, North Korea, Russia and Syria. She accused the United Nations of “bullying” Israel for its treatment of Palestinians and called for the United States to move its Israeli Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. She supported sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program and pushed hard for the decertification of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. Haley served in that role successfully for two years before resigning at the end of 2018. It will be interesting to see how Haley stacks up in the Republican race, considering the now 51-year-old has never lost an election. [caption id=“attachment_12938542” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The three Indian-American candidates will face the stiffest competition from former US president Donald Trump in the race to be announced as the Republican candidate. This decision will be made in July next year. File image/Reuters[/caption] The future of candidates But even as these candidates gear up for 2024, do they really stand a chance when the Republicans meet in July next year to formally selecting the party’s next presidential nominee? As of now, Donald Trump leads the pack with around 52 per cent of Republican supporters favouring him, according to FiveThirtyEight, an American website that focuses on opinion poll analysis and politics. **Also read: Why Indian-Americans are so influential** He is followed by Trump’s arch-nemesis Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has 15 per cent of the vote. Ramaswamy was third, with 6.8 per cent. While most poll pundits claim that an Indian-American in the White House is a distant dream, the tides are turning. Consider these numbers: the Indian American diaspora is four million plus, of which at least two million are voters. It is the second-largest immigrant group in the United States. Affluent Indian Americans also donate money to the two major parties. Additionally, the number of Indian-Americans appointed to high-profile positions has multiplied in recent years. The most significant example would be US vice president Kamala Harris. We will have to wait until July 2024 to see how the situation pans out, but for now, the future is bright for Indian-Americans. With inputs from agencies