Anti-woke Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy launched his first campaign advertisement on Wednesday as part of a multi-million dollar blitz in the months ahead, according to his campaign.
The ad, entitled “Identity Crisis,” began airing statewide in Iowa and New Hampshire on Wednesday and will run for the next two weeks. The 37-year-old entrepreneur, who founded multiple successful biotech companies and an investment firm to compete with the likes of BlackRock, focuses on what he sees as a collective stray from critical shared values in the 30-second video.
“We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis,” Ramaswamy says. “Faith, patriotism, and hard work have disappeared. Wokeness, gender ideology, and the climate cult have taken their place.”
“We spend so much time celebrating our diversity that we forget the values that bind us together,” he adds. “I believe deep in my bones those values still exist.”
“Identity Crisis” will cost the campaign six-figures and is the first installment of a larger ad campaign initiative in the first two Republican voting states, according to a press release associated with the clip. Ramaswamy will continue to barnstorm the trail in both states in the weeks ahead.
The ad comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll that showed the percentage of Americans who find patriotism, faith, family, and other traditional American values to be “very important” is dwindling.
The need for a rediscovery of national identity has been a central theme in Ramaswamy’s campaign since its launch last month. While touring a third-party warehouse and distribution business in Rochester, New Hampshire, the morning after his announcement, he said he hopes to spark a revival of the “basic ideas” of “excellence, merit, freedom,” and “democratic self-governance.”
“If we revive those things, good things are going to happen in our country, and we can actually take on the external threats that we’re going to face, China at the top of that list,” he said.
He added that if “our sense of American pride” is restored, then “the policy stuff becomes a lot easier.”
Breitbart News caught up with the candidate for an exclusive interview toward the end of his first day on the trail. He recounted his humble upbringing in an immigrant household in the Rust Belt, and how family, faith, and hard work – some of the very values he seeks to restore – helped mold the man he is today.