NEW YORK POST
Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy lost himself in the music and the moment as he broke out his rapping alter ego on the campaign trail Saturday.
In a first for the 2024 GOP primary race, the 38-year-old businessman — who has seen a recent surge in the polls — grabbed a mic and performed a verse of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” to a surprised crowd at the Iowa State Fair.
“Snap back to reality, ope there goes gravity,” he chanted, grinning broadly and pumping his fist in time to the track.
Moments before, he had named the song — a 2002 hit from the film “8 Mile” that went on to win an Academy Award — as his favorite walk-out track at campaign events.
“It’s like, young and scrappy,” he explained to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds during her “fair-side chat” event.
“I am really starting to understand my age,” responded Reynolds, 64. “I’m going to have to go look that up.”
He slammed the “climate change agenda” as a “hoax” during his half-hour stint on the stage — and promised to sign a “declaration of independence from Communist China” if elected, saying that Americans have become “addicted” to Chinese products.
Ramaswamy, the youngest major candidate in the 2024 presidential race and its only millennial, is the first passionate hip-hop fan to make a bid for the White House.
Last month, he performed a few seconds of what he called his “libertarian freestyle rap” on Fox News after a report revealed Ramaswamy’s college side hustle as a rapper who performed as “Da Vek.”
“My name’s Vivek / It rhymes with cake,” he declaimed as he showed off his hidden talent.
Ramaswamy, who has made outreach to young voters a top priority, has seen an uptick in his polling numbers in recent weeks as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s standing has declined against former president Donald Trump.
The RealClearPolitics polling average puts Ramaswamy in third place among GOP primary voters at 6.1%, with DeSantis at 15.1% — and Trump, at 52.1%, far ahead of both his nearest rivals.
