2024 GOP Candidate Accused of Turning Campaign Into Pyramid Scheme, But Some People Think

Republican presidential candidate and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has gotten attention, if not money, from a recent campaign funding proposal.

“A small oligopoly of political fundraisers is already making an ungodly amount of $$ on this election. It’s disgusting. I’m breaking up that cartel. Today we’re launching the Vivek Kitchen Cabinet: starting today, *anyone* can fundraise for the Vivek 2024 campaign & make a 10% commission. If someone else is getting rich on this, it might as well be you. Let’s go,” he posted on Twitter.

“Here’s the truth of how political fundraising actually works,” he said in a video accompanying his tweet.

A small oligopoly of political fundraisers is already making an ungodly amount of $$ on this election. It’s disgusting. I’m breaking up that cartel. Today we’re launching the Vivek Kitchen Cabinet: starting today, *anyone* can fundraise for the Vivek 2024 campaign & make a 10%… pic.twitter.com/k2y9ZL8WPe

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 10, 2023

“There’s a tiny group, it’s an oligopoly of people who raise money, bundling and otherwise, who get to keep a large percentage. Sometimes up to 10 percent, of what they actually raise. That doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

“My view is: Let’s democratize that and make it possible for everybody to make money as well.”

Twitter reacted with a mix of scorn and admiration.

Vivek turning his campaign into a pyramid scheme ? . Homie is shameless! https://t.co/sadQCBUQpG

— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) July 10, 2023

This is hilarious and genius

— E (@ElijahSchaffer) July 10, 2023

Did he learn this trick from Bernie Madoff? https://t.co/VYnAJydWAL

— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) July 10, 2023

So many of the largest online players have built their businesses this way. Bringing true affiliate marketing to politics is so obvious and so brilliant. #Vivek2024

— Daniela (@daniela_isspicy) July 10, 2023

Ben Yoho, the CEO of Ramaswamy’s campaign, said more than 300 applications to join the program were received in the first hours after the announcement, according to ABC.

Applicants have to pass a background check before being hired as contractors.

Yoho defended the idea.

“This is a flat-base commission, just like we pay our political fundraiser who’s on staff here. … This just expands that opportunity to our grassroots supporters,” he said.

He said the campaign needs to “build the ground team, both in regards to volunteer activities, but also the grassroots army small-dollar donors that will be able to lift this campaign up … and we need a quick surge of resources to defeat Joe Biden.”

Former Democratic National Committee Chief Counsel Joe Birkenstock predicted reality might not be kind to the concept.

“As is not uncommon, you see ‘outsider’ candidates tend to be the ones who pursue these kind of novel strategies,” he said.

“I think they’re gonna find that the juice really isn’t worth the squeeze. But it’s not something I can point to other examples having already gone wrong. I just think they’re kind of tackling a little bit of uncharted territory. And I think they need to be ready for a lot of surprises. That’s less for specific legal reasons than for kind of overall compliance strategy, and, you know, to some extent, just for optics reasons.”