Vivek Ramaswamy Robocalls Spark Class Action Lawsuit

Former Republican hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is being sued over complaints regarding alleged robocalls that were made in support of his 2024 campaign.

According to the suit filed in an Ohio court, Ramaswamy or his campaign team used pre-recorded calls using the entrepreneur's voice to contact potential voters on their cellular phones without obtaining their consent first.

The robocalls invited people to take part in a "teleforum town hall" and they would be connected to the event if they stayed on the line or pressed one on their phone's keypads, before Ramaswamy appeared on the call to push for votes.

The suit claims that Ramaswamy either "expressly authorized" the making of these pre-recorded calls or knew that they were going to be made to promote his presidential candidacy and did "nothing to stop them."

New Hampshire man Thomas Grant, who filed the suit, said he received several of these calls during Ramaswamy's campaign and that they were made "en masse" without his prior express consent. Grant is now accusing Ramaswamy or his team of violating the Pre-recorded No Consent Class and is calling for up to $1,500 in damages for each violation. Ramaswamy's office has been contacted for comment via email.

Grant said that he received at least eight of these robocalls to his personal cell phone between July and October 2023. The calls started with a voice saying they were from Ramaswamy's campaign and explaining that a telephone town hall event is currently taking place and to "stay on the line and you'll be automatically connected to this unique opportunity to talk with Vivek and ask questions."

During an August 8, 2023 call, Grant stayed on the line and the call cut to Ramaswamy saying "communist China for our modern way of life anymore. I will tell you in January of 2033, that we no longer apologize for success. That we no longer..." before Grant disconnected.

The suit also details complaints from people who received the calls and discussed them on the 800Notes website, a reverse phone number lookup database where people log calls from suspicious numbers.

"Has called 3 times in the last 2 days. (robocall / recorded message)," one person wrote on the 800Notes site.

A second added: "Called me again this am, unintelligible recorded message, whoever this is, needs to be trained as to how to do a proper recorded message!"

Grant is filing his suit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. He is asking for a payment award of damages and costs, as well as an injunction calling for Ramaswamy to cease all unsolicited calling activity.

"Grant never provided any form of consent to Ramaswamy to receive prerecorded calls to either his landline residential or cell phone number," the lawsuit states. "The unauthorized solicitation telephone calls that Plaintiff received from or on behalf of Defendant have harmed Plaintiff Grant in the form of annoyance, nuisance, and invasion of privacy, occupied his phone line, and disturbed the use and enjoyment of his phone."

Ramaswamy dropped out of the Republican primary race after finishing in fourth place in the Iowa caucus. He went on to endorse Donald Trump for president.

Update 01/24/24, 07:10 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further details.