WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has chosen Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate, catapulting the first-term senator into the national spotlight.
Vance was an outspoken critic of Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, the same year he promoted his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” After winning the 2022 Senate election for an open seat in heavily Republican Ohio, he transformed into one of Trump’s staunchest MAGA supporters over his 18-plus months in the Senate.
As a senator, Vance is known for his “America First” views, skeptical of U.S. involvement in global affairs such as the war in Ukraine, and his opposition to bipartisan agreements on government funding. He also helped push for bipartisan rail safety legislation following last year’s train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Vance has also aligned himself with Trump’s campaign-leading attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election, continuing to falsely claim that the election was stolen from him.
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Unlike the other vice presidential nominees, Vance was not in Congress on January 6, 2021, and did not vote to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. In a February 2024 interview with ABC News, Vance stood by his contention that the 2020 election was flawed and said Congress should have considered contesting the slate of electors.
“If I were vice president, I believe I would have told Pennsylvania, Georgia and many other states that they needed to have multiple electors and then the United States Congress would contest from there,” Vance said. “That’s the legitimate way to handle the election and that’s what a lot of people, including me, want.” [had] There have been a lot of issues in 2020. I think we should have done that.”
A Vance bid would be a blow to Republicans who want a stronger U.S. role in shaping world affairs, including from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who plans to continue making U.S. engagement a top priority after he leaves the party leadership next year.
Opponents of Ukraine aid and abortion rights
Vance established himself as a vocal opponent. of Trump has opposed aid to Ukraine and has argued that the United States should facilitate a deal for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia to end the war. He has rejected concerns that Vladimir Putin would continue to expand his territorial claims in Europe if he were to occupy Ukraine. He has also generally opposed an interventionist U.S. foreign policy, although he continues to voice support for Israel.
“We still don’t have a fundamental capacity to address the limits of American power in the 21st century,” Vance told NBC News in April after the Senate passed $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, adding that his colleagues should be working to rebuild the country rather than “presiding over the relative decline of this country’s power.”
During his year and a half in the Democratic-controlled Senate, Vance led the introduction of 57 bills and resolutions, none of which became law, according to the legislative tracking website Congress.gov. He co-sponsored many more bills, only two of which reached President Joe Biden’s desk; both would have rolled back Biden’s consumer and environmental regulations, but Biden vetoed both. Vance has co-sponsored several iconic resolutions passed by the Senate, including a resolution honoring the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance and another honoring the life of former first lady Rosalynn Carter.
Vance has become a reliable constituency on the right wing of the party that opposes most of Biden’s legislative priorities, judicial nominees and bipartisan government funding deals that have been supported by Republican leaders in both houses of Congress.
Like many Republicans, Vance has consistently voted against Democratic-sponsored bills that would enshrine abortion rights, restore the protections of Roe v. Wade, establish a federal right to access contraception, and create protections for in vitro fertilization. Vance campaigned against a vote in Ohio last year to protect abortion access. call He called the bill’s passage “a shock,” and has rejected calls for stricter gun control, putting him at odds with Democrats over a politically sensitive issue.
Railroad safety and Trump’s alleged “persecution”
One major bipartisan effort that Vance has led with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is the Railroad Safety Act of 2023, which has yet to be voted on in the Senate. Vance has also signed onto a bill from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, that would give regulators the power to collect compensation from top executives of failed banks.
Last month, Vance led a letter threatening to oppose expedited vetting of even Biden’s non-controversial nominees, accusing the administration of “persecuting President Donald Trump” through the justice system. (Biden has said he has no involvement in Justice Department cases, and there is no evidence he was involved in Trump’s prosecution.)
Vance’s selection means that both Republican candidates worked together to raise funds for individuals who engaged in political violence on January 6th.
On the one-year anniversary of the Capitol attack, Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, falsely claimed that dozens of people “who have not yet been charged with a crime” were in pretrial detention in a “Washington, DC jail,” when in fact all of those in pretrial detention had already been indicted and were under a judge’s order for detention. Vance linked to a fundraiser that included the January 6th defendant, Jack Wade Whitten, who later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison.
“You’re going to die tonight!” Whitton admitted to shouting at officers, and later bragged in a text message that he had “fed” officers to the mob.
