MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump on Monday picked J.D. Vance as his 2024 running mate, a move aimed at capitalizing on the 39-year-old Ohio senator’s youth, celebrity status among conservatives and his meteoric rise to fame as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Trump’s decision ended months of speculation over who would be on his list of likely candidates as he seeks to return to politics in a rematch with President Joe Biden in November.
“After lengthy deliberation and consideration, and taking into account many other incredible talents, I have decided that the person best qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday.
Vance “will focus on the American workers and farmers he fought so brilliantly for in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond,” Trump added.
Trump announced his nomination on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he and Vance are scheduled to formally accept the party’s nomination. Immediately after Trump confirmed his running mate, the crowd at the convention chanted “JD!” “JD!”
Still, the announcement came just days after the former president was nearly assassinated during a rally in Pennsylvania.
Within hours of the shooting, Vance blamed President Joe Biden’s campaign, but his comments were criticized as being too inflammatory.
“Today was not just an isolated incident,” Vance wrote on X. “The Biden campaign’s central argument is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. This rhetoric directly led to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
more:Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a leading contender for the vice presidential nomination, blamed Biden’s “comments” for the shooting.
Vance was first elected to the Senate in 2022 without any prior political experience, but gained public recognition for his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book, which was later adapted into a Netflix feature film, detailed Vance’s journey from a childhood plagued by drug addiction and abuse to earning a Yale Law School degree that launched him into Silicon Valley.
Many commentators used “Hillbilly Elegy” to justify Trump’s popularity among white and rural Americans in 2016. The praise catapulted Vance into national media coverage.
As Vance entered the convention hall in Milwaukee, John Gruber, 60, of Altoona, Iowa, said Vance’s Appalachian roots give him an advantage in the nomination process.
“He’s a regular guy who’s come into the Washington spotlight, but he hasn’t been there long enough to become part of the Washington swamp,” Gruber said. “Adding him to the shortlist along with Trump is essentially two outsiders going in to solve the problem.”
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, was speaking to reporters at a nearby venue when news of Trump’s pick for Vance broke, and he was smiling. He’s a friend of Vance’s.
“He understands the current state of our country, where we have a limited time to implement great policies for forgotten Americans. J.D. Vance is the epitome of that,” Roberts said. “We at Heritage couldn’t be happier.”
The Biden campaign responded to Vance’s selection by calling him a “driver” of Trump’s MAGA agenda.
Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One on Monday afternoon that Vance is “a Trump clone on issues, so I don’t see any difference.”
The vice presidential nomination marks the culmination of Vance’s meteoric rise in Trump world. The Ohio native was once a fierce critic of the former president, at times likening him to an opioid drug user and saying he could become “an American Hitler.” But ahead of the 2022 Senate election, Vance changed his tune, deleted controversial tweets and secured Trump’s endorsement in Ohio’s hotly contested Republican primary.
Today, Vance is one of President Trump’s most loyal allies and frequently appears in the media to sharply criticize President Joe Biden and his allies. He attended the first debate between President Trump and President Biden, where he happily addressed the president’s poor performance and praised President Trump’s performance. Vance is also close to one of President Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr.
As Senator Vance rose to the top of Trump’s shortlist, he appeared with his wife, Usha, on Fox & Friends for a kind of audition, and a preview of what he could do at fundraising: Senator Vance used connections from his days as a tech investor to organize fundraisers for Trump in Silicon Valley and helped raise money for the former president in Cincinnati and Cleveland.
At 39 years old and about to turn 40 (his milestone birthday is Aug. 2), Vance would be the youngest vice president since Richard Nixon served as vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He doesn’t bring any new demographics to the slate that could help Republicans win over Black, Latino and female voters. Ohio is not considered a battleground state because Trump won it handily in 2016 and 2020.
New York Representative Robert Morgan, 30, of Manhattan, said he wasn’t concerned about Vance’s age or his short history in Washington.
“He has as much experience as Barack Obama had as president, right? So I think he can handle the job,” he said.
But in many ways, Vance is seen as the future of MAGA. He embraced a Trump-style populism that railed against the Washington establishment. He is a staunch isolationist, often using the Iraq War as an analogy to justify his opposition to additional US aid for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Vance is also a skilled public speaker, which could give him an advantage in a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris left a voicemail on Monday welcoming Vance to the campaign and expressing interest in the debate. Details of the debate between Harris and Vance have yet to be agreed upon.
The Biden campaign has received an invitation from CBS News to the vice presidential debate to be held on either July 23 or August 13. The Trump campaign has received an invitation to a vice presidential debate hosted by Fox News at a date to be determined.
Some of Vance’s work in the Senate has been bipartisan, such as legislation to strengthen railroad safety and hold failed bank executives accountable. At the same time, he has opposed Democratic priorities and taken on important issues, such as voting against a plan to protect access to birth control and introducing a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors.
Usha Vance, a senator and litigation lawyer, lives in Cincinnati with her three children, ages 7, 4 and 2.
