Ramaswamy halts TV advertising as polling drops

The presidential campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy is halting its TV advertising in the crucial final stretch leading up to the first nominating contests in January, arguing its resources are better used elsewhere as the first-time candidate lags behind several rivals in polls of the Republican race.

The unusual move stirred some speculation that Ramaswamy might drop out and endorse former president Donald Trump, the overwhelming polling leader in the GOP race, whom Ramaswamy — more than any of his rivals — has defended and emulated. But his campaign said it was not pulling back on spending and sought to project optimism about its future.

Ramaswamy and his team said they simply were ditching an ineffective medium and retooling for the stretch run before the mid-January Iowa caucuses, even as they did not explicitly rule out the possibility of bowing out. “Big surprise coming on Jan 15,” Ramaswamy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, noting, “We’re doing it differently.”

Trump himself weighed in Tuesday on his social media site, Truth Social. “He will, I am sure, Endorse me,” he said of Ramaswamy. “But Vivek is a good man, and is not done yet!”

Once a little-known entrepreneur, Ramaswamy seized the spotlight at the first GOP debate in August and struck a chord with some in the Republican base.

But he also proved polarizing and didn’t translate the interest into sustained momentum in early nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where Trump’s challengers need to make a splash. Ramaswamy is mired in the single digits in polls, with the long shot fight to displace Trump increasingly boiling down to former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Tens of millions in TV advertising from Trump’s opponents has yet to dent his large lead in the primary, a fact Ramaswamy highlighted in his statement on X.