On July 15, former President Donald Trump took the stage of the Republican National Convention to announce Senator J.D. Vance as his Vice Presidential pick. This speech, coming on the opening day of the Republican National Convention, marked Trump’s first public appearance since his attempted assassination.
J.D. Vance, a 39-year-old Ohio senator, is relatively new to politics, having been elected to his first term as a Senator in 2022. Prior to his political career, Vance served in the United States Marine Corps before graduating from Ohio State University and later Yale Law. Before his political career, Vance’s claim to fame was his popular memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which detailed his childhood in an Ohio town struggling through poverty and examined politics within the region, specifically Trump’s popularity.
In the past Vance had positioned himself as a staunch critic of Trump, calling himself a “never Trump guy” and describing Trump as “America’s Hitler.” Despite his former attitude towards Trump, Vance has since said, “Trump was a great president and he changed [his] mind.” Vance’s late support of Trump proved beneficial, seemingly winning him the 2022 Ohio Senatorial election, jump-starting his political career.
In recent years Vance and Trump’s political ideologies have greatly converged- Vance tends to bolster Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ideology, especially regarding issues of abortion rights, immigration and foreign policy. Vance has also publicly supported the events of Jan. 6, 2021 and stated the 2020 presidential election was “stolen from Trump.”
Vance was a somewhat surprising pick given his former attitude towards Trump and his lack of political experience in comparison to his competitors. Despite this, Vance may prove beneficial in winning Trump midwestern support, which could be critical in the upcoming election.
