Vivek Ramaswamy, a GOP presidential candidate and former CEO, is set to announce a proposal to amend the Constitution to raise the voting age from 18 to 25.
The proposal would require people between the ages of 18 and 25 to either serve the nation in the military or as a first responder or pass the civics test immigrants take when becoming citizens in order to vote.
Ramaswamy will discuss the proposal at a Thursday evening rally with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
“We want to restore civic duty in the mindset of the next generation of Americans,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “And how we want to do it is to say that, if you want to vote as an 18–year–old, between the ages of 18 and 25, you need to either do your civic duty through service to the country — that’s six months of service in either military service or as a first responder, police, fire or otherwise — or else you have to pass the same civics test an immigrant has to pass in order to become a naturalized citizen who can vote in this country.”
Ramaswamy added that the proposed amendment is “fundamentally different“ to Jim Crow laws and that there is “no room for funny business like you had in the Jim Crow era.”
“We literally require people to pass that test to vote today,” he said. “If you‘re an immigrant, I‘d say the same thing applies if you‘re an 18–year–old who graduates from high school who wants to vote.”
Ramaswamy also noted that this proposal would “supercede“ the 26th Amendment that sets the national voting age to 18 and that the amendment will help younger Americans get out and vote more by “making voting something that’s a true privilege by attaching real civic duty to it.”
The 37–year–old candidate said he has already poured eight figures of his own money into his 2024 campaign and emphasized that there’s “no limit“ to what he’ll continue to invest into his White House run.
“I do think that Michael Bloomberg proved it — you can’t buy elections in this country, which I think is a good thing. The people of this country are too smart for that,” Ramaswamy added.
The candidate said his wealth “is going to be something that allows us to compete“ and that it “actually gives me some latitude many of those professional politicians don’t have because those donors — especially mega–donors — have expectations.”
We‘ll have to wait and see if Ramaswamy‘s proposed amendment will be accepted by voters. But one thing is certain, Ramaswamy is pushing an ambitious proposal in an attempt to bring back civic duty and civic pride in the next generation of Americans.