The latest entrant into the crowded Republican field for president is bragging his “pure blood” from not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine makes him the most qualified person to lead the country ahead of his longshot bid for the White House.
In a message to his Twitter page Wednesday, Hirsh Vardhan Singh—a systems engineer who has run several unsuccessful bids for public office in New Jersey—claimed his refusal to get the vaccine was a sign he was a stronger representative for the modern GOP’s values than current front-runner Donald Trump in his battle to “restore American values.”
“The COVID vaccines were experimental vaccines which were forced on Americans,” Singh’s campaign told Newsweek in a statement, “and I am the only candidate who did not capitulate but defended our freedoms and stood with the large number of Americans who opposed what can be called government tyranny.”
A conservative activist who once boasted ties to consultants for Trump’s campaigns, Singh has run a series of unsuccessful campaigns in his home state of New Jersey, often running on a hardline platform Singh claimed in his launch video earned him the nickname “Trump on Steroids” from New Jersey’s senate president.
After finishing third for his party’s nomination for governor in the 2016 elections, Hirsch would go on to run unsuccessful primary campaigns for Congress in 2018 and for the U.S. Senate in 2020 before going on to earn a little more than one-fifth of the vote in his second gubernatorial bid in 2021, representing his fourth-consecutive primary defeat in a state that has not backed a Republican for president since the late 1980s.
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Throughout those campaigns, Singh has largely been considered a boilerplate MAGA Republican, echoing common refrains about big tech censorship and a weaponized Department of Justice closely aligned with positions championed by Trump himself.
However, there have been some signs there is a constituency for his base: in some articles on conservative outlets in the Garden State, some have been quick to note Singh split the vote in the 2021 gubernatorial election with fellow hardliner Phil Rizzo, cannibalizing the conservative vote and handing the nomination to the more moderate Jack Ciattarelli.
Largely unknown outside of his state, however, Singh will likely face significant hurdles to gain momentum in a crowded Republican field.
In addition to never winning an election—much less serving in public office—most polls nationally show Trump as a clear favorite for the Republican nomination in 2024, while better-funded candidates like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy have largely failed to chip away at his commanding lead.
