Vivek Ramaswamy took a bold swipe at a rising narrative on the right during his speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, rejecting the controversial concept of “Heritage Americans” and likening it to fringe ideology.
Speaking to a packed conservative youth audience, Ramaswamy addressed what he sees as a troubling shift among parts of the online right: a growing belief that American identity should be determined by ancestry or lineage. “There’s a different vision of American identity that’s emergent in certain corridors of the online right,” he said. “And it says that your identity as an American is based on your lineage… your genetics tied to the blood and soil of the country, determines how American you are.”
He directly challenged the premise, which suggests those whose families were in the country since the founding are somehow “more American” than others. “That’s about as loony as anything the woke left has actually put up,” he said bluntly, drawing applause from many in the crowd.
Ramaswamy, who made waves during the 2024 GOP primaries for his staunch America First stance and outsider appeal, doubled down on his definition of what makes someone truly American. “There is no American who is more American than somebody else,” he said. “It’s binary. Either you’re an American or you’re not.”
His comments were a clear pushback against ethno-nationalist rhetoric that has been creeping into some corners of the right-wing discourse online. Ramaswamy, whose own heritage as the son of Indian immigrants has been part of his political narrative, insisted that American values—not ancestry—define national identity.
With 2026 elections on the horizon, the speech positioned Ramaswamy as a leading voice against identity-based politics—whether from the left or the right.
