Ramaswamy’s 2003 Question: Why Support a Candidate Without Experience?

On October 27, 2003, Al Sharpton and Chris Matthews, host of the MSNBC show “Hardball,” hosted an event by the Harvard University Institute of Politics. At the time, current GOP primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was a Harvard student and in the audience. At some point, Matthews turned to the audience for questions and Ramaswamy was the first to answer. “Reverend Sharpton, hello, I’m Vivek,” he began. “I want to ask you — last week on the show we had Senator [John] Kerry, and the week before we had Senator [John] Edwards, and my question for you is: Of all the Democratic candidates out there, why should I vote for the one with the least political experience?” <iframe frameborder="0" height="480" scrolling="no" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FDvmP6e-lZ9o%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDvmP6e-lZ9o&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FDvmP6e-lZ9o%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" title="Hardball with Reverend Al Sharpton" width="640"></iframe> It is clear why this old clip has gained new attention. Ramaswamy entered the 2024 presidential race without ever running for any lower office before. This was pointed out by others running, such as former Gov. Chris Christie during the first GOP primary debate held in Wisconsin. <a href="https://medium.com/the-rhode-island-times/ramaswamys-2003-question-why-support-a-candidate-without-experience-d394da04e710">Read More</a>