Vivek Ramaswamy has seen a large uptick in polling numbers, now sitting comfortably in third place in the 2024 Republican presidential race, according to FiveThirtyEight. However, Newsmax reportedly asked the upstart campaign for a large political ad spend before covering his campaign.
A report from Semafor claims the Ramaswamy campaign shared their displeasure with the lack of coverage with Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy. Ruddy, in return, told the campaign to purchase more advertising with the network if it wanted more coverage or interviews in primetime hours.
The network has categorically denied those allegations.
“Newsmax would take an assertion such as that very seriously. There is no correlation between advertising and editorial visibility for any candidate on Newsmax,” said the network’s spokesperson. “If candidates want to reach our audience outside of our programming, then, of course, advertising would be a good way for them to do this.
“That is the basis of all political advertising, whether it be on Newsmax, Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC.”
Ramaswamy has not shied away from using traditional media outlets to further his campaign. Earlier this year, he participated in a town hall event on SiriusXM with Michael Smerconish. He has also held a town hall event with upstart cable outlet NewsNation. The prospective 2024 Republican nominee appeared in Atlanta at Erick Erickson’s The Gathering along with five other potential nominees over the weekend.
