AMES, Iowa — In the basement of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house here at Iowa State University, Vivek Ramaswamy made his pitch to a crowd of about 50 young men — and one young woman — on a Friday evening last month, as a campaign that often attracts more men than women took on a literal frat house atmosphere for a night.
The fraternity brothers peppered Ramaswamy with questions about cryptocurrency, "woke" indoctrination on campus, and crime on the streets of Chicago before honorary brother Ramaswamy threw a question at them himself.
“Do you guys have suggestions to us and our team here for how we can get large numbers of college students, say here at Iowa State, to come out on Martin Luther King Day evening?” asked Ramaswamy, fishing for ideas on getting young voters to caucus on Jan. 15. “I saw some party buses on the way in here,” he added. “I’m open to any idea.”
Ramaswamy, unbowed by public polls showing him struggling in the single digits in Iowa, insists that he is inspiring a wave of first-time caucusgoers who are going to deliver a surprise next week. And he is certainly attracting a number of young men to events around the state, though high-minded civic engagement isn’t the only reason they are attending.
Throughout his campaign, Ramaswamy has been hosting what his campaign bills as “Free Speech and Free Drinks” events on college campuses, where the multimillionaire picks up the bar tab for students in exchange for their attention as he tries to persuade them to caucus for the first time. Iowa residents who are eligible to vote in the 2024 election, including college students from out of state, are eligible to caucus.
These events draw largely male crowds — and exceptionally fratty atmospheres.
During one of those “Free Speech and Free Drinks” events at the University of Iowa in October, middle-aged and older Iowans sat at the front of the town hall, genuinely interested in what Ramaswamy had to say. In the back, toward the bar, young Iowans were looking for drinks and getting rowdy.
Ramaswamy dove into a long story about the marriage between corporate America and the left, resulting in “wokeism.” Then, Ramaswamy introduced a new character into his narrative.
“A new party then showed up on the scene and turned this arranged marriage into a three-party affair,” said Ramaswamy, prompting a college student to shout, “Three-way!”
The crowd chuckled. Ramaswamy forged on. “That’s the Communist Party of China,” he said, attempting to make a serious point about his political philosophy to a boisterous, booze-indulgent crowd.
The weekend before Halloween, Ramaswamy held another of his “Free Speech and Free Drinks” events at Iowa State University, where drunken college students, mostly males dressed in all sorts of Halloween costumes, drank up on Ramaswamy’s dime. As he took the stage, he was greeted with chants of “F--- Joe Biden” from a group of young men in the crowd.
One problem with catering to an audience that’s been plied with free alcohol, though, is that when Ramaswamy began to speak, the bustling bar refused to stay quiet, largely drowning out Ramaswamy’s words and resulting in a 21-minute town hall, among the shorter events he’s had on the trail.
The "Free Speech" audiences skew more heavily male than some other Ramaswamy events, and there is some polling evidence showing he has made a bigger splash with men than with women. The December NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll showed that 50 percent of male likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa had favorable views of Ramaswamy, compared to 39 percent of Republican women.
Many of the students in the chaotic Halloween weekend crowd told NBC News they weren’t aware of who Ramaswamy was. They were simply there to pregame the rest of their night. And while a few of the young men were excited about Ramaswamy’s presence, they weren’t necessarily going to caucus for him.
Ryan Jaskowski, 21, is an Iowa State student from Yorkville, Illinois. Eligible to caucus in Iowa, Jaskowski plans on supporting former President Donald Trump.
“If Trump makes it through all these indictments, I’m going to go with Trump,” he said, adding: “I’d like to see Vivek as VP.”
As to why Jaskowski attended the open-bar event, the answer was two-fold: “A friend’s birthday, and any time there’s a wealthy politician in town I like to try to make an appearance."
Aidan Olsen, a 22-year-old Iowa State student from Jasko, Minnesota, came to the event to drink with his friend, who became acquainted with Ramaswamy’s candidacy through Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host. Olsen said that he’s never been overly politically active, and that in 2020, he “voted for Kanye,” he said with a smirk.
In the frat house in December, Ramaswamy admitted to NBC News that he was drawing largely male crowds. “A lot of young men in particular are quite enthusiastic about this campaign,” Ramaswamy said after his frat basement town hall. “But I don’t think there’s anything inherent about the message that belongs to one gender or the other.”
Hayden Payne, 20, a Phi Gamma Delta member from Council Bluffs, Iowa, said the majority of his male friends on campus at Iowa State are conservative and most of his female friends are liberal.
“More recently with Roe v. Wade overturned, I feel like that really divided the country on that crucial argument,” Payne said.
“A lot of girls obviously are going to side with the argument on the liberal agenda on abortion, and the Republican agenda is anti-abortion,” he added.
