Donald Trump has selected JD Vance, the Ohio senator who has embraced the populist right, as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election.
This announcement was made at the Republican National Convention on Monday.
"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 JD Vance of the Great State of Ohio," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
When Trump first ran for office, the idea of Vance running alongside him would have seemed improbable. Vance, a venture capitalist who gained fame with his 2016 memoir-turned-Netflix movie "Hillbilly Elegy," was a staunch critic of Trump.
“I’m a never-Trump guy, I never liked him,” Vance said in an October 2016 interview with Charlie Rose. At the time, he deemed Trump a “terrible candidate” and even questioned whether Trump was “a cynical asshole like Nixon,” or worse, “America’s Hitler.”
Since then, Vance has transformed into a MAGA power figure and a close ally of Trump, supporting some of his more controversial stances, such as questioning the results of the 2020 election. In a 2021 podcast interview, Vance suggested that Trump should purge civil servants from the federal government if re-elected.
Following the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally, Vance tweeted: "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 previously sought Trump's endorsement during his campaign for a Senate seat in Ohio. During the primary, Vance positioned himself as a Trump-style right-wing populist, criticizing “elites” and promoting the racist and antisemitic “great replacement” theory on Tucker Carlson’s show. Despite facing negative ads from the conservative Club for Growth, Vance secured Trump’s endorsement and won the primary. He later defeated Democrat Tim Ryan in the November 2022 general election, solidifying his place in the MAGA right.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who also ran in the Republican primaries, praised Vance: “I think we need more people like him in politics, who are energetic, dynamic, clear-headed about their ideology.”
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., expressed his support for Vance, highlighting his ability to advocate for Trump even in liberal media environments.
On the convention floor in Milwaukee, attendees reacted positively to the news. Nick D’Alessandro, an alternate delegate from New York, said, “I think it’s a great choice. I like that he’s young. I like that he’s from Ohio. There’s a lot of positives about him. Future of the party.” Larry Johnson, a convention attendee from West Virginia, added that Vance could bring more attention to Appalachia: “I think for a long time that area has been kind of overlooked.”
Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor, described Vance as a “strategic” choice.
In an early response from the Democratic Party, Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison stated that the “Trump-Vance ticket would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future.”
In office, Vance has aligned with the populist right, questioning the US’s role in foreign conflicts and supporting right-wing domestic legislation. In 2023, he introduced a bill to make English the official language of the US.
In a fundraising email, Trump speculated that media outlets “will say MAGA-Patriots like YOU won’t vote for me with JD Vance on the ticket. NOW’S THE TIME FOR US TO PROVE THEM WRONG!”. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia commons.