DES MOINES, Iowa — With just eight weeks until the Iowa Caucuses, it is crunch time for GOP presidential candidates to gain Iowans' support.
In an exclusive interview, biotech entreprenuer and GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told Local 5 that he plans to win the Iowa Caucuses and he won't ever campaign "half-heartedly."
Local 5's Dana Searles spent Thanksgiving morning with Ramaswamy where he said he believes he is on track to deliver a major surprise when the Iowa Caucuses come around.
Ramaswamy decided to spend his Thanksgiving morning in Des Moines running the Turkey Trot and delivering pies to his Iowa Campaign Volunteers.
Along the way, he was hoping to gain caucus support.
"Well, it's been gratifying. Probably 98% of the people we met were big fans today and I think that they were really encouraging for us to keep going in this journey," Ramaswamy said. "A lot of people I met today, especially younger people, it's a pattern I've seen on the campaign trail, but even today, during the run, after the run, there were younger people who have said they have never been to a caucus before but they're going to come out this year for us."
The latest Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll shows that Ramaswamy is polling in 5th place, before Tim Scott dropped out of the race, at 4 percent.
However, Ramaswamy disagrees with the polls, claiming that what he sees on the grounds tells a different story.
"That gives me a sense of hope and inspiration to me that we're giving that hope to young people across this country. . . I also think that means we're on track to deliver a major surprise," he said. "None of those people are polled and so I think we're sitting exactly where we want to be in this race."
Ramaswamy said that first-time caucusgoers in particular will turn this race around in his favor.
"I think that even many of those first-time caucusgoers or people that have been gone for a long time but come and say, 'We're going to do this for you,' I think they mean it," he said. "I think there's people like me, who are like me, worried that we don't have a lot of time left as a country."
In the weeks leading up to the Iowa Caucuses, we can expect to see Ramaswamy continue his bottom-up grassroots campaigning, because he believes that is the right way to do it.
"We're gonna do it as a family and we're gonna go all out," Ramaswamy said. "We're not going to, you know, do anything half-heartedly, and I think it's a good example of how we're going to lead this country."
Ramaswamy claims that mainstream media and social media show that he is an underdog. Luckily for him, he likes being the underdog.