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Former President Donald Trump on Monday selected Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate, picking a former critic who has become a loyal ally and who is now the first millennial to join a major party at a time of deep concern about the advancing age of America’s political leaders.
“After much thought and consideration, and considering the extraordinary talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to serve as Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the great state of Ohio,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth as the Republican National Convention began in Milwaukee.
Hours later, Vance formally received his party’s nomination, after entering the convention hall to the strains of Merle Haggard’s “American First.”
Vance, 39, rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
He was elected to the Senate in 2022 and has become one of the most vocal supporters of the former president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy, and immigration.
But he doesn’t yet have much experience in national politics, and he joins Trump’s ticket at an extraordinary moment in American history.
An attempted assassination of Trump at a rally on Saturday rocked the campaign trail, bringing fresh attention to the nation’s crude political rhetoric and reinforcing the importance of those on the cusp of the presidency.
Vance himself faced criticism in the wake of the shooting for a post on X suggesting that President Joe Biden was to blame for the violence.
“The central premise of Biden’s campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “That rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump.”
Law enforcement has not yet specified the motive for the shooting.
Why Vance Was Chosen Over Other Finalists
The pick is likely to energize Trump’s loyal base. Vance has become a fixture on the conservative media circuit and frequently clashes with reporters on Capitol Hill, helping establish him as the kind of leader who could carry Trump’s mantle into the future, starting with the next presidential election in 2028.
But the move also means that two white men will lead the Republican ticket at a time when Trump is trying to gain traction with black and Latino voters.
In his post announcing his pick, Trump said Vance will “focus heavily on the people he fought so brilliantly for, America’s working people and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond.” Several of these Midwestern states are expected to play a crucial role in the November election.
But Vance had another advantage: his chemistry with Trump. Personal relationships are extremely important to the former president, and he and Vance developed a strong rapport, speaking regularly on the phone.
Trump also complimented Vance’s appearance, saying he reminded him of “a young Abraham Lincoln.”
According to a person familiar with the call who requested anonymity to share the private conversation, Trump and Vance spoke about 20 minutes before the Truth Social post and before Trump formally offered him the job.
Trump has long said he wanted to dramatically reveal his pick on the convention stage, which he said would make it more “interesting” and “exciting.” The timing is later than in recent cycles, but it’s hardly unprecedented. In 1980, Ronald Reagan made his decision less than 24 hours before formally accepting the GOP nomination, and George H.W. Bush waited until his convention in 1988.
Biden’s reelection campaign released a statement accusing Vance of saying that if he were vice president, he would have allowed “multiple slates of electors” to challenge Biden’s victory over Trump four years ago. Trump has repeatedly promoted falsehoods about election fraud before and after Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters loyal to the former president stormed the Capitol to try to prevent the certification of his defeat.
“Donald Trump has chosen J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence would not do on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and regardless of the harm done to the American people,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in the statement.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, the other candidates on Trump’s shortlist, were informed early Monday afternoon that they had not been chosen by him, according to people familiar with their conversations.
Trump has spent months testing the waters, gauging how his contenders fared on television, at fundraisers and on the rally stage. Many, including Burgum and Vance, joined him at his money-stealing trial in New York. Others were at last month’s debate, where Biden’s disastrous performance rocked his campaign, leading to widespread calls for him to step aside in favor of a younger candidate.
In “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance detailed life in Appalachian communities that had turned away from a Democratic Party that many residents found disconnected from their daily struggles. Although the book was a bestseller, it was also criticized for sometimes oversimplifying rural life and ignoring the role of racism in modern politics.
Vance was once a harsh critic of Trump
The relationship between Vance and Trump has been symbiotic.
Vance’s fame has grown in tandem with Trump’s unlikely rise from reality TV star to Republican presidential candidate and then president. During the early stages of Trump’s political career, Vance called him “a complete fraud,” “a moral disaster,” and “the American Hitler.”
But like many Republicans who have sought relevance in the Trump era, Vance eventually changed his tune. He said he was proven wrong by Trump’s performance in office and evolved into one of his staunchest defenders.
“I didn’t think he would be a good president,” Vance recently told Fox News Channel. “He’s been a great president. And that’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.”
Vance was rewarded for his turnaround during his run for a vacant Senate seat in 2022, during which he won Trump’s coveted endorsement and rode him to victory in a crowded Republican primary and a close-fought general election for Democrats. He is close to Trump’s son, Donald Jr.
“Listen, I’ve seen him on TV,” Donald Trump Jr. said of Vance, speaking to CNN from the convention floor. “I’ve seen him make the case against the Democrats. Nobody’s more eloquent than him. And I think his history, his background, really helps us in a lot of the places you’re going to need it from an Electoral College standpoint.”
Vance is now a staunch supporter of Trump, who has challenged the legitimacy of criminal charges and civil sentences against him and questioned the results of the 2020 election.
In February, he told ABC News that if he were vice president on January 6, 2021, he would tell states where Trump had contested Biden’s victories “that we needed more slates of electors and I think the United States Congress would have to fight for it from there.”
“This is the legitimate way to approach an election that many people, including myself, believe had a lot of problems in 2020,” he said.
Many states enacted emergency measures four years ago to allow people to vote safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. But judges, election officials from both parties and Trump’s own attorney general concluded there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Vance’s book brought him to national prominence
Vance’s book, subtitled “Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” has been hailed for its insights into Trump’s appeal among America’s middle class, where lost manufacturing jobs and the opioid crisis have pushed many families like his into poverty, abuse and addiction.
The tale of Vance’s difficult childhood in Middletown, Ohio, where he was born, and his family’s hill country of eastern Kentucky has also captivated Hollywood. Ron Howard made it into a 2020 film starring Amy Adams as Vance’s mother and Glenn Close as his beloved “Mamaw.”
With his grandmother’s encouragement, Vance went on to serve in the Marine Corps, including in Iraq, and graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. From there, he joined a Silicon Valley investment firm before returning to Ohio to launch a nonprofit that he said would develop treatments for opioid addiction that could be “scaled nationwide.”
Ultimately, Our Ohio Renewal failed in that mission and was shut down. During the 2022 campaign, then-U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, his Democratic rival, accused the charity of being little more than a front for Vance’s political ambitions. Ryan pointed to reports that the organization had made payments to a Vance political adviser and conducted public opinion polls, even as its actual efforts to address addiction had largely failed. Vance denied the characterization.
As a senator, Vance has shown a willingness to work both ways. He and Ohio’s senior senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, have worked together on a number of issues important to the state, including fighting over funding for a $20 billion chipmaking facility Intel is building in central Ohio and introducing rail safety legislation in response to the fiery derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Associated press
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