MILWAUKEE – With an eye on the future of a Republican Party ruled by former President Trump and his legions of MAGA followers Trump has picked 39-year-old Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate on the GOP’s 2024 national ticket.
The former president, who made his much-anticipated and high-stakes announcement on Monday as the Republican National Convention began in the largest city of swing-state Wisconsin, will now be joined on the ticket by one of his top Senate supporters and a former Trump critic who has transformed into a leading America First disciple.
After much study and thought, and taking into account the amazing talents of many others, I have determined that Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio is the ideal candidate to serve as Vice President of the United States,” Trump stated on his Truth Social platform.
JD Vance of the Great State of Ohio
Trump stated that Vance’s campaign will prioritize American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and beyond.
Before running for government, Vance, a former venture entrepreneur and author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” was considered one of the top running mates among Republicans. That group comprised North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina
While Vance is from Ohio, a once-battleground state that the former president easily carried in the 2016 and 2020 elections, the senator’s selection is expected to boost Trump among working-class Democrats, particularly in the Rust Belt, who might otherwise have supported President Biden, according to multiple experts who spoke with Fox News Digital as Trump was weighing his options.
Vance was raised in a working-class household in a small town in southwest Ohio. Vance’s parents separated when he was young, and his mother struggled with drug and alcohol abuse for years, so he was raised in part by his maternal grandparents.
After graduating from high school, Vance joined the United States Marine Corps and served in the Iraq War. He later graduated from Ohio State University and went on to study law at Yale University.
Vance, who lives in Cincinnati, relocated to San Francisco after law school to work as a principal in a venture capital business founded by billionaire venture investor Peter Thiel, who later became a significant financial backer of Vance’s successful 2020 Senate race.
Before running for Senate, Vance gained national notoriety after his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” which tells the story of his upbringing in a failing steel mill community and his roots in Appalachian Kentucky, became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a Netflix film.
The anecdote highlighted the attitudes of many working-class Americans who came to support Trump’s agenda.
Vance was an outspoken critic of Trump when he initially ran for president in 2016.
Vance subsequently came around to Trump, appreciating the former president’s term in the White House, and apologized for his prior criticism of Trump in a Fox News interview in 2021.
Trump’s backing of Vance just days before the 2022 GOP Senate primary propelled him to victory in a crowded, heated, and explosive nomination race.
“Look, I was mistaken about Donald Trump.” “I didn’t think he’d be a good president,” Vance told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview last month. “He was a fantastic president, and that’s one of the reasons I’m fighting so hard to ensure he receives a second term.”
In the Senate Vance has been one of the most vocal supporters of Trump’s America First agenda and has been a vocal opponent of U.S. aid to Ukraine
Vance had a strong ally in Donald Trump Jr. during the vice presidential nomination process. Vance is close friends with the former president’s eldest son who is a beloved surrogate in the MAGA world.
The senior Trump also appears to have developed a friendship with Vance. The former president compared Vance to “a young Abraham Lincoln” in an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade last week, following a story that he disliked facial hair like Vance’s.
“No. “I’ve never heard that one,” Trump replied when questioned about the article, which indicated Vance’s facial hair could jeopardize his selection as his running mate. “He looks good. “He resembles a young Abraham Lincoln.”In the Senate, Vance has been
Read more
US Election: Top Issue is the Cost of Living
