Who is JD Vance? Things to know about Donald Trump’s pick for vice president

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Former President Donald Trump chose the U.S. on Monday Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio to be his running mate as he seeks to return to the White House.

Here are some things you should know about Vance, a 39-year-old Republican who is now in his first term in the Senate:

Vance was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio. He joined the Marines and served in Iraq, and later graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He also worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

Vance made a name for himself with his 2016 best-selling memoir “Hillbilly elegy,” which was published when Trump was first running for president. The book earned Vance a reputation as someone who could help explain the independent New York businessman’s appeal in Middle America, especially among the working class and rural white voters who helped Trump win the presidency.

“Hillbilly Elegy” also introduced Vance to the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. loved the book and met Vance when he began his political career. The two got along well and remained friends.

After Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Vance returned to his native Ohio It is create an anti-opioid charity. He also took to the lecture circuit and was a favorite guest at Republican Lincoln Day dinners, where his personal story — including the difficulties Vance faced because of his mother’s drug addiction — resonated.

Vance’s appearances were opportunities to sell his ideas for fixing the country and helped lay the groundwork for entering politics in 2021when he sought the Senate seat vacated by Republican Rob Portman, who retired.

Trump endorsed Vance. Vance won a crowded Republican primary and general elections.

Personal relationships are extremely important to the former president and he and Vance have developed a strong relationship over the years, speaking regularly on the phone.

Trump also praised Vance’s beard, saying he “looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.”

Vance was a “never Trump” Republican in 2016. He called Trump “dangerous” and “unfit” for office. Vance, whose wife, lawyer Usha Chilukuri Vance, is Indian-American and the mother of their three children, also criticized Trump’s racist rhetoric, saying he could be “America’s Hitler.”

But by the time Vance met Trump in 2021, he had already changed his mind, citing Trump’s accomplishments as president. Both men have downplayed Vance’s scathing criticism in the past.

Once elected, Vance became a fierce Trump ally on Capitol Hill, relentlessly defending Trump’s policies and behavior.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called Vance a leading voice for the conservative movement, on key issues including the move away from interventionist foreign policy, free market economics and “American culture writ large.”

Democrats call him an extremist, citing provocative positions that Vance took but sometimes later corrected. Vance signaled support for a national 15-week abortion ban during his tenure in the Senate, for example, he later softened this stance once Ohio voters overwhelmingly supported an abortion rights amendment of 2023.

Vance met his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, at Yale, where she received her law and undergraduate degrees. She spent a year clerking for future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served as an appeals court judge in Washington, followed by a year as a law clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts.

She had been a lawyer at the law firm of Munger, Tolles and Olson. Her law firm announced Monday that she had left the firm.

“Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career,” Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement.

In the 2020 election, he said he would not have immediately certified the results if he were vice president and said Trump had “a very legitimate complaint.” He imposed conditions to honor the 2024 election results that echo from Trump. A series of government and outside investigations have found no voter fraud that could have influenced the outcome of Trump’s 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

In the Senate, Vance sometimes embraces bipartisanship. He is Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown co-sponsored a rail safety bill after a Burning train derailment in Ohio village in eastern Palestine. He has sponsored legislation that expands and increases funding for Great Lakes restoration and supported bipartisan legislation that boosts workers and families.

People familiar with the vice presidential vetting process said Vance would bring to the Republican Party debating skills and the ability to articulate Trump’s vision.

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, said Vance convincingly articulates the America First worldview and could help Trump in states he narrowly lost in 2020, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, which share the values, the demographics and the economy of Ohio.

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Milwaukee and Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.