2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is launching a program that promises commission to donors in an effort to grow his supporter base and “democratize political fundraising.”
Ramaswamy announced “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet” on Monday, a program that allows participants to receive a 10% commission on the total amount that they raise for his 2024 campaign — something he says is limited to an “oligopoly” that bundles money and keeps it away from voters.
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“As a political outsider and first-time candidate, I was stunned to discover the degree to which the political class cashes in on the electoral process. I found out that most professional political fundraisers get a cut of the money they raise — why should they monopolize political fundraising? They shouldn’t,” Ramaswamy said in a press release given to the Washington Examiner ahead of the program’s launch.
“This isn’t just a grassroots campaign; this is a revolution,” Ramaswamy continued.
Ramaswamy is slowly gaining on former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), the current GOP frontrunners. A recent poll from Echelon Insights conducted in late June showed Ramaswamy breaking into double digits at 10%, moving him into third place behind Trump and DeSantis, respectively.
Ramaswamy gained a considerable amount of popularity among Republican voters after he was the only presidential candidate to come out in support of Trump after the former president’s federal indictment last month.
The poll puts Ramaswamy ahead of opponents like former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), but the outsider candidate is still facing an uphill battle to attract big donors that are not already pledged to established candidates.
With “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet,” Ramaswamy hopes to appeal to individual donors and build his campaign from the ground up.
In a video shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner, Ramaswamy said donors will get a unique link that connects the individual to the candidate.
“We’ll have a special relationship. I’m gonna keep giving you phone calls, telling you how I think you can be most effective for us,” Ramaswamy said. “But the money you raise, you get to keep 10% of it.”
Ramaswamy said he built his businesses by democratizing the ability to make money, particularly focusing on Roivant, a biotech healthcare company that he founded in 2014.
“Big Pharma makes money from their blockbuster drugs, but you know who doesn’t? The scientists who actually discovered those drugs,” Ramaswamy said. “My first company was built on the idea that those scientists should be able to get uncapped upside, make an unlimited amount of money, from the drugs they actually contributed to developing.”
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“Well, now I’m bringing that same mentality to the world of politics,” Ramaswamy continued. “If somebody in some cloistered corner office is going to make 10% of the money they would raise for me or other candidates, it might as well be you.”
Ramaswamy has over 60,000 unique donations, with the average donation reaching around $30, his campaign told the Washington Examiner. Ramaswamy ended the first quarter with about $9.4 million cash on hand, putting him roughly on par with top-tier GOP candidates.
