MILWAUKEE — Looking to the future of a Republican Party dominated by former President Trump and his legions of MAGA supporters, Trump has named 39-year-old Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate for vice president in the 2024 Republican national election.
In a highly anticipated and major announcement Monday as the Republican National Convention kicked off in Wisconsin’s largest city, the former president will now share his slate of candidates with one of his key Senate allies and one-time critic of Trump who is now a leading America First advocate.
Vance, a former venture capitalist who wrote the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” before entering the race, was among a small group of Republicans considered front-runners for the vice presidential nomination, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
Former Trump rival Nikki Haley speaks at Republican convention, tilting party in support of Trump
From left, former President Trump and then-Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance address supporters during a rally at Dayton International Airport on Nov. 7, 2022, in Vandalia, Ohio. (Photo by Drew Ungerer/Getty Images)
Vance is from Ohio, a battleground state that the former president once won handily in the 2016 and 2020 elections, but his selection is expected to boost Trump’s support, especially among working-class Democrats across the Rust Belt who might otherwise have backed Biden, according to several experts who spoke to Fox News Digital as Trump was considering his options.
Vance grew up in a working-class family in a small town in southwestern Ohio: his parents divorced when he was young, and his mother struggled for many years with drug and alcohol abuse, so he was raised by his maternal grandparents.
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After graduating from high school, Vance enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in the Iraq War, then graduated from Ohio State University and earned a law degree from Yale University.
Vance, who lives in Cincinnati, moved to San Francisco after graduating from law school. billionaire Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, She later became a major donor to Vance’s 2020 Senate victory.
Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio speaks to reporters outside Manhattan Criminal Court during the criminal trial of former President Trump, Monday, May 13, 2024, in New York. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Before his Senate run, Vance gained national attention when his story of growing up in a struggling steel town and his Appalachian roots in Kentucky became a New York Times bestseller and a Netflix film called “Hillbilly Elegy.” The story shone a spotlight on the values of many working-class Americans who have come to support Trump’s policies.
Vance was a vocal critic of former President Trump when he first ran for president in 2016.
But Vance ultimately supported Trump, praising the former president’s tenure in the White House and, in a 2021 Fox News interview, apologizing for his previous criticism of Trump.
Trump’s endorsement of Vance just days before the 2022 Republican Senate primary gave him a shot at victory in a closely contested and fiercely contested nomination race.
“Look, I was wrong about Donald Trump. I didn’t think he’d be a good president,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier last month. “He’s been a great president, and that’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to give him a second term.”
In the Senate, Vance has been one of the most vocal supporters of President Trump’s America First policies and has been a vocal opponent of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) speaks at a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, “Improving Rail Safety in the aftermath of the East Palestine derailment,” in Washington, DC, on March 22, 2023. (Reuters/Evelyn Hochstein)
During the vice presidential vetting process, Vance had a powerful ally in Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son and a popular surrogate in MAGA circles, who is a close friend of Vance’s.
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Trump’s father also appears to have a close relationship with Vance: Last week, in a conversation with Fox News reporter Brian Kilmeade, the former president likened Vance to “a young Abraham Lincoln” in response to reports that Vance’s facial hair was offensive.
“No, I haven’t heard that,” Trump said when asked about reports suggesting Vance’s facial hair could impede his running mate selection. “He looks good… he looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.”
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