Donald Trump on Monday picked J.D. Vance, a Republican US senator from Ohio, as his vice-presidential nominee, giving a boost to a politician who once fiercely criticized the former president but has now become one of his most staunch supporters.
The news, circulated on Trump’s Truth social media website, emerged at the start of the four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to nominate the party’s presidential ticket.
The selection of James David Vance, author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” could boost the chances of Trump supporters turning out in the Nov. 5 election, as Vance, an Ohio native, is highly popular among the Republican candidate’s supporters.
A staunch conservative from a Republican state, Vance is unlikely to bring many new voters to Trump’s side, and could even alienate some liberals. Some Trump supporters had pushed him to pick a woman or person of color as his No. 2 to expand a coalition that has tilted toward white men.
The former president, 78, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday by a gunman whose motive is still unknown.
Several high-profile supporters of Trump — including former senior adviser Steve Bannon and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. — have praised Vance for pushing the Republican Party to adopt a more non-interventionist foreign policy and supporting trade barriers.
Vance has also delighted Trump supporters with his aggressive presence on social media, which is relatively rare in the Senate, where many lawmakers still strive to maintain a sense of decorum and civility.
Vance, 39, will represent a younger generation in the election, including Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden, bringing a counterweight to the Democratic ticket, which includes 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris.
In selecting Vance, Trump overlooked other potential contenders such as U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Tim Scott, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Vance’s rapid rise has been unusual for American politics. After a troubled and impoverished childhood in southern Ohio, he served in the Marine Corps, won a scholarship to Yale Law School and later worked as a venture capitalist in San Francisco.
He rose to prominence in 2016 after writing “Hillbilly Elegy”, in which he described the socio-economic problems of his hometown and the cycle of poverty that trapped Americans in the Appalachian Mountains, where his mother and her family were born.
In the book, Vance criticizes the self-destructive culture in rural America and attempts to explain Trump’s popularity among poor white Americans.
Vance himself had been strongly critical of Trump both before and after his 2016 victory over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, calling him an “idiot” and “American Hitler”, among other epithets.
But as Vance prepared to run for U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2022, he became one of the former president’s most consistent defenders, supporting Trump even when some Senate colleagues refused to do so.
Vance has downplayed the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He said he “doubted” Mike Pence’s life was in danger, despite violent protesters getting within yards of the former vice president while Secret Service agents were escorting him out of the Capitol building. Vance has also reiterated Trump’s criticisms of the way the Justice Department prosecuted the January 6 rioters, and accused the department of disregarding due process protections.
In February, he refused to criticize Trump for saying he had encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack America’s NATO allies if they failed to increase their defense spending.
The Republican Party has historically stood for free markets and embraced foreign intervention as an important tool of national security, but Trump’s 2016 election created significant divisions within the party. Vance has been one of the most vocal opponents of continued aid to Ukraine in the Senate, a stance at odds with many Republican legislative leaders.
During the campaign, the former venture capitalist has also served as a bridge between Trump allies and wealthy Silicon Valley donors, many of whom have opened their wallets for Trump in this election.
Still, there are critics of Vance’s selection among Trump allies, particularly those who wanted Trump to choose a diverse vice presidential candidate. Though Trump and Biden are roughly tied in most national polls, Trump trails the Democratic president by a significant margin among women and Black Americans.
Some Trump allies have privately questioned whether it would be wise to kick Vance out of the Senate amid a race between Democrats and Republicans for control of the upper chamber. Democrats have a one-seat advantage, though they are likely to lose it in November’s election.
Ohio is safely Republican in presidential elections, but sometimes elects Democrats in other races. Vance won his 2022 election by six percentage points.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)