MIDDLETOWN, Ohio – Republican J.D. Vance will make his first solo campaign appearances on Monday, a day after the 2024 presidential race was shaken up by President Joe Biden dropped out of the racemaking the Democratic nominee an open question.
Vance, a senator from Ohio, is scheduled to hold a rally in his hometown of Middletown on Monday afternoon, followed by a second rally on Monday night in Radford, Virginia, fresh off his rally debut with Donald Trump over the weekend.
Vance was expected to face Vice President Kamala Harris in a debate. But with Biden’s withdrawal and the uncertainty of the Democratic ticket, the senator is following Trump’s example and focusing on attacking Biden and Harris together.
“President Trump and I are ready to save America, whoever is at the top of the Democratic ticket,” Vance said Sunday in a post on X. “Bring it on.”
The Trump campaign plans to use Vance, who became the Republican vice presidential nominee last week, in Rust Belt states that are seen as crucial to Democrats’ path to the White House, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and places where the senator’s blue collar has roots. and populist views are expected to resonate.
His hometown of Middletown, which is between Cincinnati and Dayton, is considered part of the Rust Belt. Using it as the venue for his first solo event as a vice presidential candidate not only allows Vance to lean on his biography, which he laid out in his best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” but also gives the campaign a chance to establish a new wave. in a former swing state that leans Republican.
Vance’s second event on Monday will be held in a part of western Virginia that is considered part of the Appalachian region.
In his speech at the Republican National Convention last week Introducing himself to America, Vance spoke of “forgotten communities” where “jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war.”
The 39-year-old Republican also leaned on his relative youth, contrasting Biden’s decades in government with milestones in his own life. It’s unclear how Vance will shift his message toward Harris, whom many Democrats were lining up to support, or any other candidate for the nomination.
Despite his presence on the primetime debate stage and his best-selling book, Vance is still working to introduce himself to voters.
A CNN poll conducted in late June found that the majority of registered voters had either never heard of Vance or had no opinion of him. Just 13% of registered voters said they had a favorable opinion of Vance and 20% an unfavorable opinion, according to the poll.
After Vance was named Trump’s running mate, a surprising number of Republican delegates, who are typically party members and activists, said they didn’t know much about the senator.
Vance served in the Senate for less than two years. He stopped being a harsh critic of Trump, at one point comparing him to Hitlerto become a staunch defender of the former president, campaigning on his behalf and even joining him at his criminal trial in Manhattan this summer.
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