Donald Trump has selected Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his presidential running mate, ending months of speculation about the Republican nominee’s choice to help him challenge President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump said Monday in a Truth Social post.
Two other top Republican contenders, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, were told earlier that they would not be picked, NBC News reported.
The Biden campaign promptly panned the selection, accusing Trump of picking Vance because he will “bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people.”
“Billionaires and corporations are literally rooting for J.D. Vance: they know he and Trump will cut their taxes and send prices skyrocketing for everyone else,” read the statement from Biden-Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Harris has previously accepted an invitation from CBS News to participate in a vice presidential debate on either July 23 or Aug. 13.
(L-R) J.D. Vance, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, shakes hands with former President Donald Trump during a rally hosted by the former president at the Delaware County Fairgrounds on April 23, 2022 in Delaware, Ohio.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Trump’s selection provides a sudden, massive jolt in stature for the 39-year-old Vance, who joined the Senate as a political newcomer less than two years ago.
Vance gained fame in 2016 through his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which traced his rural upbringing in Ohio and mused on the culture and politics of Appalachia.
While not without its critics, the book quickly earned Vance a reputation as a trenchant political analyst who, despite an Ivy League education, possessed a unique sense of how the White working class viewed the rest of the country.
In the private sector, Vance worked for Mithril Capital, the venture-capital firm run by Peter Thiel, and started his own VC firm, Narya, in 2019.
Vance ran in 2022 for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican. Vance beat former Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, by a 53%-47% margin, and took office in January 2023.
Before entering politics, Vance was a major Trump critic, slamming him as a “total fraud” and even comparing him and his MAGA political movement to a harmful drug.
“Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein,” Vance wrote in The Atlantic before Trump won the 2016 election.
But as a politician, Vance has morphed into one of the most loyal and extreme backers of both Trump and his brand of nationalist, populist politics.
This combination photo shows, from left, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
AP
For instance, Vance was among the parade of Republicans who appeared outside of Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York City to decry the prosecution of the GOP leader.
He later claimed the trial was “election interference,” and that its “main goal” was “psychological torture” against Trump. The jury in that trial convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records; Trump is currently set to be sentenced on Sept. 18.
After Trump survived a shocking assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, Vance baselessly blamed the Biden campaign for the attack.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote within hours of the shooting. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
The attack, which left one rally attendee dead and Trump with a minor injury, sent shockwaves across the country and spurred condemnations of violence across the political aisle.
Biden, in an Oval Office address after the Trump rally shooting, urged Americans to lower the temperature of political rhetoric and reaffirm the democratic norms of civil disagreement and decency.
As a senator, Vance has opposed sending U.S. aid to Ukraine as it fights against invading Russian forces, and he has repeatedly voted against legislation that would preserve or expand federal abortion rights.
The Vance announcement came during the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump earned enough GOP delegates to officially become the Republican presidential nominee.
The development added to an already eventful day of Trump-related news.
Earlier Monday morning, federal Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the criminal case charging the former president with illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
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