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Former President Donald Trump has chosen Senator JD Vance as his 2024 running mate.
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Trump’s pick positions a vocal ally as the potential next vice president.
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Vance, 39, would be one of the youngest vice presidents in history if elected.
Former President Donald Trump announced Monday that he chose the senator. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate, adding a vocal ally to a ticket destined to appeal to Trump’s base.
“As Vice President, JD will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our troops, and do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump said when announcing his pick on Truth Social.
The former president also pledged Vance’s business career and authorship of The New York Times bestseller, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Trump’s selection comes just days after he survived a 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. This rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump,” Vance wrote on X.
Police said they continue to investigate the shooter’s motives.
By selecting Vance, Trump guarantees that the Republican Party’s 2024 ticket will have neither women nor people of color. Some of Trump’s advisers wanted him to select a more diverse potential vice president to underscore his efforts to expand the Republican Party’s appeal to communities it has long struggled to win.
Vance illustrates that Trump remains free from the concerns that would normally 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 he is trying to win over. Trump also has more government experience than Vance, who served less than two years in the U.S. Senate.
A generation ago, selecting an Ohioan would have been considered a potential move to win a key swing state. But Republicans have slowly rebuilt Ohio to the point that Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is running for re-election in November, is the only statewide elected Democratic official. None of the other reported finalists on Trump’s list represented a swing state in the 2024 election.
Vance owes a lot to Trump, but he didn’t always support the former president. A once self-described “Never Trump Republican,” Vance previously said he considered voting for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. His memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” was suspended after Trump’s shocking about-face as a way for Americans to understand the appeal of Trump. During his Republican Senate primary campaign, Vance apologized and said he was wrong about Trump. The former president’s endorsement later catapulted Vance into the U.S. Senate.
Before entering politics, Vance began working as a venture capitalist, working closely with Peter Thiel. Thiel, who spent more than US$15 million in a super PAC to elect Vance to the Senate, reportedly said he will not donate to any political candidate before November.
In Washington, Vance quickly aligned himself with Republicans who wanted to transform the more establishment-oriented Senate GOP into a group more aligned with Trump. Vance has been a vocal critic of aid to Ukraine, which has pitted him against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Ohioan has also been deeply critical of 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 went 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 will be sworn in as one of the youngest vice presidents in the country’s history. Given that the former president can only serve one more term, Vance will be well positioned to continue Trump’s legacy.
Read the original article at Business Insider
