Ramaswamy insists he’s still in the game as he fails to qualify for last debate

Republican candidate’s poll numbers are not high enough to take part in Iowa debate as campaign says not to write him off

Predictions of the end of Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for the presidential nomination are premature, a senior aide insisted, as the biotech entrepreneur who enjoyed early success with a brash and aggressive campaign contemplated a final Iowa debate taking place on Wednesday night without him.

Tricia McLaughlin, Ramaswamy’s senior adviser and communications director, said: “The energy we’re seeing on the ground in Iowa is electric, and that level of turnout and excitement is far surpassing the cratering DeSantis and astroturfed Haley campaigns.”