A Leader in Her ‘Own Unique World’: Meet Apoorva Ramaswamy, Physician Wife of GOP Presidential Hopeful
Dr. Apoorva Tewari Ramaswamy believes her husband can change the world. The otolaryngologist and assistant professor at Ohio State University is married to GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy. The two met as students at Yale, where she was studying medicine and Vivek Ramaswamy was a law student. They got married on May 31, 2015.
Along with her two boys — Karthik, 2, and Arjun, 7 months — the 33-year-old Indian American has been making appearances along Ramaswamy’s campaign stops. In July, was seen alongside her husband at the Moms4Liberty event in Pennsylvania. The non-profit is “devoted to fighting for parental rights in education,” according to the organization’s profile.
A Leader in Her Own ‘Unique’ Way
Recently at a campaign stop in Iowa, she she talked about Ramaswamy’s rise and what led to his decision to seek the nomination. Speaking with Fox News host Harris Faulkner, she recalled a conversation she had with her husband a few months ago. He told her “we are facing a crisis for our country, for the country our two little sons are going to inherit.” He felt that they have to be “the ones to step up and lead our country because no one’s going to unify us, no one’s going to remind us of why this country is the best nation in the world,” she told Faulkner. She described her husband as always having big aspirations, recalling how, after a few months with Ramaswamy, she told her mother that she was “pretty sure” that her then-boyfriend was “going to change the world.”
The couple’s admiration and respect is mutual. Ramaswamy has praised his wife, including on the campaign trail, “especially her work raising the couple’s two children while working as a surgeon as he runs for president,” Fox News reported. He often shares posts about his wife on social media to mark special occasions. “Happy birthday to the love of my life, Apoorva! So grateful for our every day together. Best decision I ever made,” he captioned an Instagram post on Aug. 13.
She’s a medical writer and has written articles in leading medical journals. She has also conducted many presentations addressing the cause and the treatments of her respective fields both at the national and international level conferences.
Ramaswamy spoke about his family in a recent interview with conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson in Atlanta. The GOP presidential candidate said his family and faith in God help keep him humble while running for the highest office in America. Comparing his political efforts to his wife’s work as a doctor and caring for their children, he told Fox News: “I think I do derive a lot of the humility from my wife, who is a leader in her own way, in her own unique world,” Fox News quoted him as saying. He also described “a brief period” when he and his wife were able to catch up following days on the campaign trail, the Fox report said.
During the first Republican debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Aug. 23, he spoke about his family in his introductory remarks. “I’m the outsider on this stage,” he said, “not a politician.” He said his parents “came to this country 40 years ago with no money, and I’ve gone on to found multibillion-dollar companies.” He did it while “getting married to my wife Apoorva and raising our two sons. That’s the American Dream,” he continued. “For a long time, we conservatives have been running from something. Now is our moment to start running to something. To our vision of what it means to be an American.”
Who is Apoorva Ramaswamy?
An otolaryngologist at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center — James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, she specializes in “treating voice and swallowing disorders that can occur in people who have undergone cancer treatment,” according to her Ohio State University profile. In addition to her clinical and research work, she is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Ohio State University. She also serves on the medical advisory board of the National Foundation of Swallow Disorders and on multiple committees for the Dysphagia Research Society. Her Twitter bio says that she is “passionate about eating, helping people eat, and maximizing the quality of life of cancer survivors.”
“I am passionate about helping my patients with these problems using both surgical and medical methods in order to optimize their quality of life,” she wrote on the Ohio State University website. “I am also grateful to have the opportunity to further our knowledge about these issues, including how they happen, how we can treat them, and how we can prevent them in the first place. Through my research, I hope to answer these questions and improve care for my patients.”
She’s a medical writer and has written articles in leading medical journals. She has also conducted many presentations addressing the cause and the treatments of her respective fields both at national and international level conferences.
The daughter of urologist Ashutosh K. Tewari and Maya Tewari, Apoorva Ramaswamy grew up in New York. Her father is the chairman of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Before moving to the Icahn School of Medicine in 2013, he was the founding director of both the Center for Prostate Cancer at Weill Cornell Medical College and the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital, according to his Mount Sinai profile. He is known for pioneering oncological research in the field of genitourinary robotic surgery and the development of revolutionary techniques to maximize cancer control and recovery of urinary and sexual function.
After graduating from Horace Mann School in New York City, Apoorva Ramaswamy got a bachelor’s degree in biology from Yale University in 2011 before enrolling in Yale University School of Medicine. She completed grad school in 2015 and did her residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She’s been working at her current job at Wexner Medical Center at Ohio University since August 2021.
Just like any 21st-century mom, Apoorva Ramaswamy is juggling it all — her career, her kids, her family, and her husband’s presidential campaign. A trait that Ramaswamy never fails to mention. His Aug. 10 Instagram post says it all: “Mother. Wife. Surgeon. Citizen. Future First Lady. Count me in on the Apoorva Ramaswamy Fan Club.”