Vivek Ramaswamy opens Iowa headquarters for aggressive closing caucus push

DES MOINES, Iowa — Vivek Ramaswamy opened his Iowa campaign headquarters Tuesday evening, a base of operations for the campaign as it plans to hold over 200 events in the state before the Jan. 15 caucuses.

“We need more space, but also the amount of better contact that has to be done,” said Ramaswamy’s campaign manager Ben Yoho, who added that the Iowa headquarters would also house Ramaswamy’s national campaign apparatus through caucus day. 

The space will be home to 30 full-time staff and include a 7-day-a-week call center, according to Ramaswamy’s communications director, Tricia McLaughlin. The Ramaswamy campaign plans to hold caucus captain and get-out-to-vote training at the office space.

The opening of the office space less than seven weeks before the caucuses is well after some of Ramaswamy’s GOP competitors. Former President Donald Trump opened his Iowa headquarters in August, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley opened hers in October, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened his office ten days ago alongside popular Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who recently endorsed him.

But Ramaswamy’s self-funded campaign is making an aggressive ground game push in the Hawkeye State. He’s already held the most events in the GOP field over the last six months, with hundreds more coming.

“We’re not going to apologize for speaking the truth. That’s what we’re going to stand for. And I think that in the next 50 days, between now and January 15, that is going to be the formula for us to win Iowa,” Ramaswamy told voters and staff at the grand opening Tuesday evening. 

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The heavy schedule featured a jam-packed itinerary on the week of Thanksgiving, which included 20 campaign events. And on Thanksgiving Day, while most other candidates were back home with their families, Ramaswamy spent the morning running a 5-mile race in Des Moines, chatting up voters as he ran. 

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“I’ll tell you what a woman told me yesterday when she was talking about our schedule,” a panting Ramaswamy told NBC News during his Thanksgiving run. “She said, I see you’re working hard. She said good luck. But I’ll tell you how to spell luck, W-O-R-K.”

The campaign announced earlier this month that it would be relocating staff, including Ramaswamy, to Iowa and New Hampshire. They are giving up their offices in his home state of Ohio through the early caucus and primary. And Ramaswamy himself is renting an apartment in Des Moines.

The NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom from late October showed Ramaswamy at just 4%, well behind Trump at 43% and DeSantis and Haley at 16% apiece.