DURHAM, N.H. — Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said her Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, is an oddball.
Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump and his campaign are confident that Vance’s blue-collar background will help him win key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which have long been part of the Democratic Party’s “blue wall.”
Asked by Fox News if she agreed with the Trump campaign’s claims about Vance, Whitmer replied, “Maybe if J.D. Vance wrote ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ but that’s an entirely different person. Vance has completely betrayed those values, that book, and has become nothing more than a reflection of Donald Trump.”
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Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance delivers his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Maybe even more worrying than reflecting Donald Trump,” Whitmer added, “I would say that kind of leadership is not going to resonate with people, and that’s why we need people to know who he is.”
When asked to respond, Vance said in a statement to Fox News, “Career politicians like Gretchen Whitmer can lie about me all they want, but I will always put American workers and families first because I will never forget where I come from.”
“It is career politicians like her who support Kamala Biden’s radical agenda of keeping the southern border open, squeezing America’s energy supply, crushing the auto industry with an electric vehicle mandate and inflating the cost of living with inflationary spending, but they clearly have forgotten about the people she is supposed to represent,” Vance said.
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Vance gained national attention several years ago when he wrote “Hillbilly Elegy,” a book that told the story of his upbringing in a struggling steel town in southwest Ohio and his roots in Appalachian Kentucky. The book became a New York Times bestseller and was made into a Netflix movie. It highlighted the values of many working-class Americans who have come to support Trump’s policies.
Vance’s working-class parents divorced when he was young and his mother struggled with drug and alcohol abuse for years, so he was raised by his maternal grandparents.
After graduating from high school, Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marines and served in the Iraq War, then graduated from Ohio State University and earned a law degree from Yale University, before moving to San Francisco and working as a principal at a venture capital firm before returning to his home state of Ohio to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump applauds a gesture by Republican vice presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance during the second day of the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Reuters/Elisabeth Franz)
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 helped him win a crowded and fiercely contested nomination race. After winning the Senate election, Vance quickly became one of Trump’s biggest supporters of America First policies in Congress and a champion of the former president’s MAGA movement.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, at a house party in Durham, New Hampshire on July 25, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Whitmer, a two-term governor and Democratic heavyweight in a key Midwestern battleground state, spoke to Fox News at a house party in Durham, New Hampshire, during her third and final campaign stop in the key New England battleground state on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris, who this week became the front-runner to replace President Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.
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President Biden, In a much-admired announcement on Sunday, Biden said he was ending his bid for reelection with Trump and endorsing his vice president in 2024. Biden’s move came amid growing pressure within the Democratic Party to back down after his disastrous first presidential debate with Trump last month.
The embattled president’s immediate endorsement of Harris sparked a surge in support for her from Democratic governors, senators, representatives and other party leaders. By Monday night, the vice president announced that she had secured the party’s nomination with the support of a majority of the roughly 4,000 delegates at next month’s Democratic National Convention. And since Biden’s announcement, Harris has raised a staggering $129 million, her campaign touted Thursday morning.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer attends Vice President Kamala Harris’ house party with Democratic activists on July 25, 2024 in Durham, New Hampshire. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
“I was grateful and honored to serve as co-chair of the Biden campaign and I am equally grateful and honored to serve as co-chair of the Harris campaign,” Whitmer said to hundreds of cheering people at a house party.
No Republican has won New Hampshire in a presidential election in the past 24 years, but recent polls suggest a contest between Biden and Trump within the margin of error.
But two new polls in the state released on Thursday showed Harris holding a single-digit lead over Trump.
Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital’s Election Hub.
