‘We should talk.’ How Kathy Barnette came to advise Vivek Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign
Kathy Barnette, the former U.S. Senate candidate who roiled the final weeks of last year’s GOP primary in Pennsylvania, is now guiding another insurgent contender vying for the presidency.
Barnette is serving as the national grassroots director for Vivek Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old self-made hundred millionaire whose hyper-aggressive interview strategy has vaulted him ahead of a slew of traditional Republican candidates in early 2024 polling.
“Vivek is like the male Indian version of me – but with a lot more money,” Barnette said in a recent interview with McClatchy. “It’s like two peas in a pod as far how we see the world and align.”
Barnette, who finished a strong third in the Republican primary for Senate in Pennsylvania last year, first attracted Ramawswamy’s attention during her feisty primary debate with Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick.
Ramaswamy liked her on the social media website formerly known as Twitter, which led Barnette to stumble upon his book, “Woke Inc.: Inside America’s Social Justice Scam.”
Intrigued to learn more, she DM’d him, “We should talk,” and he sent his phone number back. It sparked a conversation that led to a meeting in New York City and began a relationship between two ideological bedfellows attempting to change their party from outside of the conventional political machinery.
When Ramaswamy alerted Barnette in December of his decision to run for president, he asked for her help, as “the perfect person to help me build a movement of ordinary Americans who are tired of the status quo.”
“I agreed immediately,” she said, becoming the first official staffer brought onto the team.
Barnette now spends her days talking to lots of people in early nominating states – activists, influencers, connectors, media personalities – attempting to assemble support for an Indian-American man most Americans had not heard of six months ago. She’s collected $140,000 so far this year from the Ramawswamy campaign for her work, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
As a Black, conservative woman, Barnette says the real differentiator in her skillset is who she’s reaching – potential voters who have been ignored or shunned aside by the upper crust of the political class.
“There’s no Kathy Barnette-like on any of the other campaigns. What I’m doing is what you saw me doing in Pennsylvania. Going up from a bottom-up approach is what I do, and then of course, Vivek goes from the top down,” Barnette said.
Barnette’s loss in last year’s Senate primary still lingers in her mind, largely because it was allies of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement who attacked her as she was building momentum with a shoestring campaign budget.
Trump had endorsed Oz and his allies largely rallied to the celebrity doctor, even as Barnette saw herself as the more authentic carrier of the America First torch.
Now, she wants to elevate Ramaswamy as the next iteration of Trumpism, which will require them to embark on the daunting task of vanquishing the former president.
“It’s America First 2.0. Donald Trump has taken the ball and has ran so many yards…and where we left the ball, Vivek is picking it up and taking it even farther than Trump did and would be able to,” she said. “I think you only get one chance to be an outsider.”
On Thursday, a pollster employed by Ramaswamy’s campaign released a survey showing him in a statistical tie for second place with Ron DeSantis among Republican voters nationally, but still 42 points behind Trump.
Back at home, Barnette said she wasn’t sure if Pennsylvania is falling out of reach for Republicans. She described the 2022 Senate result – in which Oz fell to John Fetterman – as “demoralizing” for conservatives.
Next year will feature another Senate race with Democratic Sen. Bob Casey defending his seat. Barnette’s formal rival, McCormick, looks to be the leading challenger, if he chooses to run.
“We have a lot of work to do as the Republican Party, if we think we’re going to come in and have a good showing next year in Pennsylvania,” she said.
