Vivek Ramaswamy Revels in the Limelight

Vivek Ramaswamy has seen his profile surge following a lively performance during Wednesday's Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, during which he provoked both cheers and boos from the audience after claiming he was the only candidate on stage who hadn't been "bought and paid for" by donors.

The hours after the debate Ramaswamy saw his social media following swell by nearly 40,000 on X, formerly Twitter, and over 3,000 on Facebook, while a prominent liberal commentator said he was "undeniably the top candidate of the base."

Ramaswamy had been gaining ground over the past few months, with a Cygnal survey conducted earlier this month putting him in second place amongst Republican voters at 11 percent, ahead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 10 percent. Donald Trump, by some margin the current frontrunner, chose not to attend Wednesday's debate, claiming he would be "harassed by people that shouldn't even be running for president" if he did. Instead, he was interviewed on X by Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News star, with the video receiving more than 100 million times in four hours.

During the debate Ramaswamy caused a stir by taking a swipe at his GOP rivals, commenting: "I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for so I can say this: The climate change agenda is a hoax.

"The reality is the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. And so the reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change."

Chris Christie, the passionately anti-Trump former governor of New Jersey, interrupted to say he'd "had enough" of "a guy who sounds like ChatGPT."

Ramaswamy also hit out at the level of U.S. aid provided to Ukraine, arguing it is "driving Russia further into China's hands" and should instead be spent shoring up the American-Mexican border.

According to Social Blade, a website that tracks social media followings, Ramaswamy gained 39,000 followers on Twitter, and another 3,100 on Facebook on Wednesday, both figures more than three times the daily average for August.

As a result of the debate 'Vivek' became a trending topic across the United States, and was still the top trend nationwide at 10:00 a.m. ET. on Thursday.

CNN polled 15 Republican voters on air immediately after the debate, with seven saying Ramaswamy performed the best. The next highest was Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, with four votes.

Speaking to Newsweek David Andersen, an associate professor of U.S. politics at Durham University in the U.K., argued Ramaswamy performed strongly, but could struggle as he comes under additional scrutiny.

"Ramaswamy was easily the most confident and clever of the GOP candidates at the first debate, Andersen said. "He hit all the key points that the GOP base wanted to hear and he also did a good job of separating himself from the rest of the field by staking out bold, different positions on several issues. He presented himself as a new version of the 2016 Trump, without the aggressive personality and scandals.

"Still, he does not have much of a shot at winning the nomination. Trump's lead is still massive and what we are going to see over the next few months is anti-Trumpers testing out candidates who could challenge him. DeSantis has already gone through his test phase and did not solidify support around himself. He was interesting but ultimately did not withstand scrutiny. He became a predictable, somewhat goofy, anti-woke crusader.

"The Republican electorate seems to be moving on from DeSantis now and after the first debate, Ramaswamy looks likely to be the next candidate to emerge and face intense scrutiny. His poll numbers should rise from here and he may draw within 15-20 points of Trump as anti-Trumpers begin to voice support and interest in him. However, he is also not likely to consolidate that support either."

Writing on the platform MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who has over 1.3 million followers, said Ramaswamy "is now undeniably the top candidate of the base - if Trump were to disappear."

Trump is facing prosecution in four separate court cases over claims he orchestrated the payment of hush money to an adult film star, mishandled classified documents and attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election both nationwide and specifically in the state of Georgia. He has strongly denied wrongdoing in all the cases, which he alleges are politically motivated.

Charlie Kirk, head of CEO of influential conservative campaign group Turning Point USA, also praised Ramaswamy. He said: "Vivek by far the strongest. He knows what time it is."

Journalist Glenn Greenwald posted: "An amazing amount of intense attention devoted to Vivek tonight from a bunch of politicians who have been around and known for way longer than he has been. Internal polling must be showing interesting things beyond Trump's massive lead."

Newsweek has contacted Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign for comment by email.

Update 8/25/23 3:05 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from DavidAndersen.