This guy was a non-starter from the start….
His people are bailing from his campaign….
Vivek Ramaswamy won’t be on the Illinois GOP primary ballot, some of his campaign staffers have begun looking for work elsewhere, and he hasn’t qualified for Wednesday’s final televised debate before Iowa’s caucuses.
Why it matters: Ramaswamy jumped to political prominence in recent months with an anti-establishment, Trump-friendly message — but now there are signs that his long-shot campaign could be starting to unravel.
Driving the news: Ramaswamy has poured much of his campaign’s energy into a good showing Monday in Iowa’s caucuses, where he’s predicted he’ll finish no worse than third — above either Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis and behind former President Trump, the front-runner.
- Polls in Iowa indicate Ramaswamy is running fourth — and beyond Iowa, the picture for him is unclear. His campaign says he’s skipping Illinois’ GOP primary on March 19 as a strategic decision.
Zoom in: GOP officials tell Axios that they’ve received job inquiries from multiple Ramaswamy campaign staffers since early November…..