Hundreds of Penn State students and community members stood in line on campus to hear former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speak and do a Q&A with audience members Thursday evening as part of Turning Point USA’s “You’re Being Brainwashed” tour.
The event room in the Sparks Building capped out around 350 people, and organizers let students in first, so hundreds of others were turned away.
For over an hour, Ramaswamy spoke and answered questions on several topics including the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, mainstream media, climate change and government trust. He threw his support behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and said the election will be decided by Pennsylvania.
“There’s an important election 20 days out; I feel really good about what the outcome could be and I think it’s going to be decided by the state of Pennsylvania, so I encourage everybody here to register and get the heck out there and vote,” Ramaswamy said.
The event was also livestreamed on his X page, with as many as 30,000 viewers watching at various points in the evening.
The last question was about what people can do in the days leading up to the election to make a difference. Ramaswamy urged everyone to register to vote, and to encourage their own friends and family to do the same, and to “actually show up” on Election Day, Nov. 5.
“For the Republicans in the room, I’ve got a special challenge for you, which is that — we, myself included, don’t love this concept of early voting. Like, I’m not into it. I think we need single day voting on Election Day as a national holiday with paper ballots, government issued ID and English as the sole language that appears on a ballot,” Ramaswamy said, which garnered applause from the crowd. “But to the Republicans in the room, if you’re like me, I got a challenge for you, which is that we got to win so decisively in this election that a landslide minus some shenanigans, is still a victory. In order to get there that will require us to do something that we are otherwise not into doing … Vote early so we can actually get this right for the future.”
Ramaswamy’s event is the second time the “You’re Being Brainwashed” tour has made a stop at Penn State’s University Park campus this semester. In September, Turning Point USA’s founder, Charlie Kirk, appeared at the HUB lawn alongside Jack Posobiec, a far-right political activist. Kirk’s event drew hundreds, if not thousands, of supporters.
This week is turning out to be busy for political activity in State College. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken Democrat who represents New York’s 14th district, is set to campaign Friday in State College to support the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket as part of the “Students for Harris-Walz” coalition. The event will be held from 5-7 p.m. at The State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave., State College.
Election Day is Nov. 5.
