Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday selected J.D. Vance, a senator from the Midwestern state of Ohio, as his running mate in November’s presidential election.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social media platform, saying he decided the Marine Corps veteran and Yale Law School graduate is “the person best suited” to become vice president of the United States.
Shortly after Trump’s naming of the 39-year-old Vance, the bearded senator took a victory lap on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee as thousands of delegates cheered.
Trump drew his own cheers late Monday as he made an appearance at the convention sporting a bandage on his right ear from an assassination attempt at his Saturday campaign rally.
Vance is expected to address the gathering on Wednesday, the night before Trump formally accepts the party’s presidential nomination for the third consecutive time.
“I think it was an excellent choice,” an excited Ginger Howard, a party national committeewoman from Georgia, told VOA on the floor of the convention. “I think they’re going to make a great team."
Just before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, President Joe Biden, responding to a reporter’s question about Vance’s selection, termed the senator “a clone of Trump on the issues. I don’t see any difference.”
Biden’s reelection campaign was quick to elaborate, characterizing Vance as a willing servant to Trump’s more autocratic and regressive undertakings.
Trump, twice impeached and now a convicted felon for falsifying business records, picked Vance because he “will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” said Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who chairs the Biden-Harris campaign.
Trump has downplayed the severity of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, framing it as a legitimate protest against what he claimed without evidence was a "stolen" 2020 presidential election. He has also criticized the subsequent federal investigation and prosecution of those involved, labeling it a witch hunt politically motivated by Biden, his opponent in a second consecutive election.
Biden’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, is “fully prepared” to debate Vance under the format proposed by CBS News, according to the Democrats’ campaign.
“Trump’s VP pick is great news for wealthy Americans and terrible for everybody else,” Senator Elizabeth Warren told reporters on a Biden-Harris campaign conference call shortly after the former president’s announcement of his running mate.
“Social Security and Medicare cuts will bear down on seniors like an avalanche” if Trump and Vance are elected, predicted Warren. “Millions will face losing access to health insurance.”
Vance has emerged as a strong advocate of Trump and his hard-line policies, from immigration restrictions to cuts for social programs. But as was true of numerous other prominent Republicans when the New York real estate developer first ran for president eight years ago, Vance had been highly critical of Trump.
“Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us,” Vance said on Twitter in October 2016. He subsequently deleted the tweet.
Vance, a venture capitalist before being elected a senator, first rose to prominence with his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was made into a Hollywood movie. The book and film chronicle his experiences coming of age in a struggling working-class family in the Appalachian region.
With his name aside Trump’s on the 2024 ticket, Vance immediately becomes the most prominent Republican to be passed the torch of a political party radically reframed by Trumpism.
Trump, if he is elected again and serves a full second term, would be 82 the day he leaves office.
Biden’s cognitive abilities at his current age of 81 have emerged as a major campaign issue and divided his own Democratic Party, with a growing number of prominent Democrats in and out of Congress calling for him to abandon his reelection bid in favor of a younger replacement.
“Trump wanted a younger candidate who can campaign and connect with working-class voters, especially in the Midwest. Vance is also the first millennial to appear as a major party nominee on a presidential ticket, representing a generational change in U.S. politics,” said Cayce Myers, a Virginia Tech professor of public relations.
Vance would become the second-youngest vice president in U.S. history if elected along with Trump. Democrat John C. Breckinridge was 36 when he took the oath of office as vice president on March 4, 1857, under President James Buchanan. Republican Richard Nixon, as President Dwight Eisenhower’s vice president, was 40 when he took on the role in 1953. Breckinridge failed in his subsequent quest for the presidency. Nixon was elected president in 1968 after a losing bid eight years earlier.
A survey of 3,000 U.S. adults conducted Monday by polling firm YouGov indicated a lack of strong opinions on Trump’s choice of Vance, particularly among political independents.
Asked if they had a favorable opinion of Vance, 43% of all respondents said they were not sure, compared to the equal split of 29% who said they had either favorable or unfavorable views.
Among respondents who identified as independents, 53% said they were not sure whether they viewed Vance favorably or unfavorably.
Self-identified Republicans had the highest views of Vance, with 33% selecting very favorable, while 46% of self-identified Democrats chose very unfavorable.
Roman Mamonov of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.
