(France24).- Donald Trump, former president of the United States and now officially nominated by the Republican Party as presidential candidate for the November elections, chose on Monday, July 15, Ohio Senator JD Vance as his vice-presidential running mate.
A Republican gamble that could be criticized because of Vance’s past, as the 39-year-old senator was a fierce critic of the man who is now his partner in the fight for the White House.
“After much deliberation and reflection, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the most suitable person to assume the office of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance from the great state of Ohio,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social as the Republican National Convention began in Milwaukee.
The announcement comes at a time of deep concern in the American political scene, due to the advanced age of Biden (81 years old) and Trump (78 years old). Therefore, the former president’s decision may be a bid to counteract this nervousness, since Vance, 39 years old, is the first millennial running for a major party in the United States; in contrast to his Republican rival Kamala Harris, 59 years old.
On Monday, in addition to announcing the Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States, the Republican National Convention formally nominated Trump as its candidate for President, just two days after the billionaire was attacked at one of his campaign events in Pennsylvania.
But who is JD Vance? France 24 takes a look at some key points in the career of this politician who, alongside Trump, hopes to lead the White House.
JD Vance: a renowned writer as well as a politician
JD Vance is a native of Middletown, Ohio, where he now serves as a senator. He was a member of the United States Marine Corps and served his country in Iraq. He later attended Ohio State University and Yale Law School. However, he also had a stint in economics, having been a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.
But his name rose to prominence with his 2016 bestseller Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir of white working-class America that was turned into a Netflix film of the same name. His literary work gave him a reputation as someone who made sense of the grievances of rural white voters who helped propel Trump to the White House.
“Hillbilly Elegy” also put Vance in the Trump family’s crosshairs, as the book sparked interest among Donald Trump Jr., who knew his father’s running mate before he launched his political career.
So, after his literary victory, Vance returned to his home state to create an anti-opioid charity. He then entered the Republican political grassroots in 2021, when he sought the Senate seat vacated by Republican Rob Portman. At the time, Trump endorsed the candidacy of the writer and politician, who won his Ohio Senate seat in 2022 as his first public office in the United States.
Vance’s metamorphosis from Trump’s harsh critic to his fierce defender
Trump and Vance have a checkered past in their views, and despite the former president’s announcement on Monday, Vance’s speech was not always close to and faithful to Trump’s position.
The Republican candidate must now bear the weight of his words in the final stretch of the presidential elections on November 5, especially because of the statements he made in 2016. Eight years ago, before the presidential elections at that time, Vance was a savage critic of Trump. Publicly, he referred to the billionaire as an “idiot” and said that he was “reprehensible.”
In fact, he has in the past called himself “never a Trump supporter.” Vance, whose wife is Indian-American lawyer Usha Chilukuri, also criticized Trump’s racist rhetoric and said the tycoon could be “the Hitler of the United States.”
However, Vance changed the tone of his speech in 2021 when he met with the billionaire and both played down those claims.
At the same time, the senator has come to Trump’s defense regarding the 2020 election, saying the former president had “a very legitimate grievance” and that he would not have certified the results immediately if he had been vice president. However, a long series of government and external investigations have so far found no electoral fraud that could have influenced Trump’s loss to then-president Joe Biden.
Speaking to Fox News, Vance recently said: “I didn’t think he was going to be a good president,” referring to Trump’s tenure.
“He was a great president. And that’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term,” she added.
A conservative voice
Vance’s profile is not far from that of his colleague Trump. The young politician has supported extreme policies against migration, the LGBTI community and environmental protection.
He has also made clear his stance against abortion, one of the key issues of this election and a crucial issue that could cost the Republican candidate votes. For example, during his campaign for the Senate, Vance expressed his support for a national ban on abortion at 15 weeks of gestation. However, he moderated his tone after Ohio voters overwhelmingly backed an amendment on the reproductive right to abortion in 2023.
Speaking about Vance’s views, Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called the Ohio senator a leading voice for the conservative movement on key issues such as moving away from interventionist U.S. foreign policy, free market economics and “American culture in general.”
Given his long conservative track record, questions arise about what new things Vance can bring to Trump’s campaign, given that his way of reading American politics is almost the same as that of the Republican billionaire.
Trump’s bet may be on a Republican victory in the Midwestern states.
“Vance’s selection is clearly intended to appeal to Midwestern voters who believe in small government and the possibilities of the American dream. Vance’s personal story will be attractive to many in the party and to those who don’t have much interest in politics,” said Robert Alexander, a professor of political science at Ohio Northern University, in an interview with the EFE news agency.
Why Vance and not someone else?
Trump’s calculations are aimed at consolidating his loyal political base. As mentioned above, Vance has become a standard-bearer for the Republican and conservative vision close to the former president. Indeed, the young politician often faces journalists on Capitol Hill, an action that confirms him as a leader who can pave the way for Trump.
Beyond this, the chemistry between these two white men plays a fundamental role. The bond between Trump and Vance is fundamental for the former president, as both have developed a close and strong relationship, speaking on the phone frequently.
Trump’s message announcing his ticket states that his now running mate “will focus heavily on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American workers and farmers of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond,” arguing for the decision on July 15.
Joe Biden’s campaign lashes out at Vance
Following the announcement that Vance had been chosen as the Republican vice presidential candidate, the campaign of current US President Joe Biden lashed out at Trump’s ticket in a statement; the statement claims that Vice will bow to the former president, in contrast to Mike Pence’s stance during the assault on the Capitol in 2021.
“Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence failed to do on January 6th: bend to the side of Trump’s extreme agenda, even if it means breaking the law and regardless of whether it harms the American people,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
Biden’s campaign thus alluded to the actions of Pece, who served as Trump’s vice president during his time in the White House between 2017 and 2021 and did not agree to participate in Trump’s efforts to try to reverse the results of the 2020 election.
In its statement, the US president’s campaign described Vance as an extremist and “a mere extension of Trump’s political positions.”
With EFE, Reuters, AP and local media
Author: Hugo Caro Jimenez
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2024-07-18 06:01:16