Former 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy admitted this week on Fox News that the emergence of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee (after President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race), “was a bit of a shock that caught a lot of Republicans by [the] blindside.”
Ramaswamy said of the Trump-Vance GOP ticket that now faces a surging Harris: “I do believe that we need a bit of a reset in this campaign.”
He added: “The reality is we need to take a step back and say, ‘we’re gonna offer our own vision for what we stand for.’ I believe the attacks on Kamala will not be enough.”
The hard truth is we need a massive reset right now. The criticism that Kamala mounted a coup on Biden isn’t landing, neither is the claim that she covered up Biden’s cognitive decline. None of that matters to voters now. We need to offer our vision for the future of America,… pic.twitter.com/ADKXUb26j9
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 31, 2024
Ramaswamy warned that if the GOP doesn’t spend more time promoting its vision rather than attacking Harris, there will be “more risk heading into November.”
[NOTE: Ramaswamy’s proposed shift may not be easy according to Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who claims (see below) that the GOP attacks its opponents precisely because it doesn’t have a strong alternative vision to present — an accusation of GOP futility that some conservative Republicans, like Texas Congressman Chip Roy, also make. What some Republicans had offered recently as their vision — the controversial Project 2025 — was poorly received as extreme and has been repudiated by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. ]
Former Trump critic, Republican New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who endorsed and campaigned with Nikki Haley before switching his vote to Trump, is also encouraging his party to “stop the trash talk” against Harris.
In his op-ed this week in The New York Times, Sununu wrote: “As Donald Trump and my fellow Republicans navigate the next steps of their campaigns, my message to them is this: The path to victory in November is not won through character attacks or personal insults.”
Note: Haley also said that Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee), calling Harris a “DEI hire” is “not helpful.”
On CNN, Haley suggested that the GOP should focus on Harris’s record as a vice president and senator. “You don’t need to talk about what she looks like or what gender she is,” the former South Carolina Governor and United Nations ambassador said. “The American people are smarter than that.”