One of the most shameless ploys for career advancement in conservative media was Larry Elder’s run for presidency. The only problem was, it didn’t work. Many of you have no idea who Larry Elder is and that he was even running for president. But on the race card and Conservative Inc. astroturfing was his campaign built, yet the latter would not come into fruition thus dooming his career advancement ploy. Many do not realize that their is no punishment for running for president. You get invites, book deals, future job opportunities. The money raised can be transferred to other campaigns, like for Senate.
Larry Elder is a California based radio host a part of the Salem network. When he ran for governor as part of the Gavin Newsom recall, Conservative Media astroturfed Elder’s candidacy, essentially framing the race as between Larry Elder and Gavin Newsom in a heavy Democrat state. This strategy had disasterous results when the recall finally happened. Larry Elder announced his candidacy for president on the Tucker Carlson show and yet failed to gain any traction ever since.
Enter Vivek Ramaswamy
The role of Larry Elder in the race was quickly consumed by Vivek Ramaswamy, the new hotness in heavily online political campaigns. Vivek brought boomercon talking points less neoconservatism and exchange access to his campaign for air time on any platform. Had Con Inc not embraced the snake oil salesman in Ramaswamy, perhaps Elder would have gotten consideration. Yet professional jealously of unspoken guild rules might still have prevented competitors from platforming Elder’s unserious campaign whereas Ramaswamy’s unserious campaign is more entertaining and less threatening to marketshare.
Fade To Black
Larry Elder failed to accumulate a critical mass of support to be on the first debate stage. While he protested his exclusion, his lack of qualification, nonetheless, was a coup de grace to the fledgling campaign.
It's time to unite behind @realDonaldTrump to beat Joe Biden! pic.twitter.com/VXw6pyem2d
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) October 26, 2023
Months later he would quietly suspend his campaign and pledge fealty to Donald Trump.
Who will end their unserious campaign next?
