NASHUA, N.H. — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has a list of ten different “truths” that form the backbone of his campaign stump speech. The first one: “God is real.”
Now, some voters are asking to hear more about that.
Ramaswamy is only the second prominent Hindu to run for president, after then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard sought the Democratic nomination in 2020. As the first-time candidate earns notice from a slice of Republican voters in early-voting states, they are quizzing Ramaswamy on the role his faith is going to play in his campaign — and what it means that his religion is different from the evangelical Christians who play an outsized role deciding Republican primaries.
A core part of Ramaswamy’s message is talking about God and religion. At a town hall in Nashua Tuesday night, one voter asked the candidate, “How does your belief in your God inform policies that were originally informed by the belief in, fear of and obedience to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?”
Ramaswamy responded saying, “Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values, there’s no doubt about it. It is a historical fact.”
Ramaswamy told the audience that while he is not a Christian, he can lead this country because, “We share the same values, the same Judeo-Christian values in power.” He added: “I’m not running to be a pastor-in-chief, I’m running to be our commander-in-chief.”
The base of the Republican Party is heavily Christian and heavily evangelical: Among self-identified Republicans nationally, 56% described themselves as evangelical Christians, according to the most recent NBC News poll.
It’s an especially key voting bloc in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, where past GOP winners like Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz carried evangelicals by double-digits on their way to victory — even though other candidates bested them among the non-evangelical minority of Iowa Republican caucus-goers, according to…
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