Ramaswamy hit with racism, Hinduphobia at Charlie Kirk event

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy faced racist and Hinduphobic questions at a Turning Point USA event in Montana last week, with attendees challenging whether he could represent a predominantly Christian state.

“What are you conserving?”: Ramaswamy tackled the controversial inquiries during a question-and-answer session in the Oct. 7 event at Montana State University’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. One attendee questioned, “If you are an Indian, a Hindu, coming from a different culture, different religion than those who founded this country … What are you conserving?” Another asked how he could represent Ohio’s 64% Christian population as a practicing Hindu, while one claimed he tried to “masquerade as a Christian.” Another challenged whether his “polytheistic ideology” shared “Christian values.”

In response, Ramaswamy explained his theological position from the Vedanta school of Advaita philosophy. “I’m actually a monotheist. believe there’s one true God,” he told the audience. He then drew a parallel to the Christian Trinity, asking, “Doesn’t make you a polytheist, does it?” while noting both traditions reconcile “the one and the many.” Turning to his political role, Ramaswamy asserted. “I’m not running to be pastor of Ohio, I’m running to be governor of Ohio.” To emphasize the point, he brought one of the Q&A participants onstage to read Article VI of the Constitution aloud, which bars religious tests for office.

What this means: The confrontations reveal deep-seated religious prejudice in Republican politics, where Asian American politicians must repeatedly justify their legitimacy. Christian nationalism threatens democratic pluralism even as the Constitution explicitly forbids faith-based qualification tests. Such questioning has apparently followed Ramaswamy in conservative spaces, where most Republicans identify as Christian. The billionaire entrepreneur’s latest experience thus underscores a difficult reality: his financial success, Trump’s approval and conservative credentials may prove insufficient for complete MAGA acceptance when the color of his skin or his religion troubles some supporters. Still, his response strategy of combining religious explanation with constitutional principle offered a model for defending faith diversity without compromising conviction.

Campaign trail: The event took place during TPUSA’s memorial tour for founder Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last month. In the aftermath, Kirk’s organization experienced rapid growth, receiving 120,000 new chapter requests in just four days. At the Montana stop, Ramaswamy, who has Trump’s endorsement, urged conservatives in his speech to move beyond “owning the libs” toward genuine persuasion. The former 2024 presidential candidate left his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-leadership role with Elon Musk earlier this year to focus on the Ohio campaign.

The Montana event drew additional controversy last week when Nalin Haley, former presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s son and a newly converted Catholic, on X criticized Ramaswamy’s Trinity comparison as “blasphemous” and “a slap in the face to every Christian.”