Former President Donald on Monday announced that he has selected Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate, adding a vocal ally to a ticket aimed at appealing to Trump’s base.
Trump’s selection comes just days after he survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Vance almost immediately blamed Democrats for the shots fired at the former president.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” Vance wrote on X.
Law enforcement has said it continues to investigate the shooter’s motives.
In selecting Vance, Trump assures that the Republican Party’s 2024 ticket with have neither a woman nor a person of color on it. Some of Trump’s advisors had wanted him to select a more diverse potential vice president to underline his efforts to expand the GOP’s appeal to communities it has long struggled to win over.
Vance illustrates that Trump remains unencumbered by the concerns that would typically animate a non-incumbent when selecting a running mate. Unlike former Vice President Mike Pence, Vance does not help Trump appeal to a wing of the party that he’s trying to win over. Trump also has more governing experience than Vance, who has served less than two years in the US Senate.
A generation ago, selecting an Ohioan would have been considered a potential move to win a key swing state. But Republicans have slowly remade Ohio to the point that Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is up for reelection this November, is the only Democratic statewide elected official. None of the other reported finalists on Trump’s list represented a battleground state in the 2024 election.
Vance owes a great deal to Trump, but has not always supported the former president. A once self-described “Never Trump Republican,” Vance previously said that he considered voting for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. His memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” was held up in the aftermath of Trump’s shocking upset as a way for Americans to understand Trump’s appeal. During his Senate GOP primary campaign, Vance apologized and said he was wrong about Trump. The former president’s endorsement later catapulted Vance into the US Senate.
Before entering politics, Vance cut his teeth as a venture capitalist, working closely alongside Peter Thiel. Thiel, who spent over $15 million on a super PAC to get Vance elected to the Senate, has reportedly said he won’t donate to any political candidates ahead of November.
In Washington, Vance quickly aligned himself with Republicans who wanted to refashion the more establishment-minded Senate GOP into a group more in line with Trump. Vance has been a vocal critic of Ukraine aid, which pitted him against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Ohioian has also been deeply critical of the criminal prosecutions, becoming Trump’s first potential vice presidential pick to travel to Manhattan to show his support during the former president’s criminal trial. Vance has even gone so far as to question Pence’s belief that Trump put his family in danger on January 6.
If Trump wins a second term, Vance would be sworn in as one of the youngest vice presidents in the nation’s history. Given that the former president can only serve one more term in office, Vance will be well-positioned to carry on Trump’s legacy.
