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Former U.S. president Donald Trump ended months of speculation on Monday when he officially tapped U.S. senator James David “J.D.” Vance of Ohio as his running mate.
Vance, 39, of Middleton, Ohio is the youngest person to be nominated for the vice presidency since Richard Nixon in 1952 (the future president was elected that year alongside Dwight Eisenhower and assumed office in January 1953 at the age of 40). Vance was elected to the Senate from his home state in 2022 after winning the GOP primary with Trump’s support. He rose to fame years earlier via the publication of his 2016 family history, Hillbilly Elegy, and amassed a fortune as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of vice president of the United States is senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, summa cum laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was editor of The Yale Law Journal, and president of the Yale Law Veterans Association.”
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— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 15, 2024
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“J.D.’s book, ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ became a major best seller and movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our country,” Trump continued. “J.D. has had a very successful business career in technology and finance, and now, during the campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.”
Trump added that Vance would “continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Vance is married to the former Usha Chilukuri, whom he met at Yale. The couple have three children. She is Hindi. He is Catholic.
Vance was reportedly tapped by Trump at the urging of several of his key advisors, including his son – Donald Trump Jr. Our audience will recall Trump Jr. and other members of the former president’s inner circle were adamant he not select his former 2024 rival, Nikki Haley, for the vice presidency.
Vance’s selection drew plenty of ire, too, though.
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Predictably, the far left was livid over it – and especially over his comments following last weekend’s attempted assassination of Trump.
“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance posted on X following the shooting. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that president Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
A statement from the campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris blasted Vance’s nomination, saying he “supported banning abortion nationwide while criticizing exceptions for rape and incest survivors; railed against (Obamacare), including its protections for millions with preexisting conditions; and has admitted he wouldn’t have certified the free and fair election in 2020.”
“Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance 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,” the Biden-Harris statement noted.
The national party also had strong words of condemnation for Vance.
“J.D. Vance embodies MAGA – with an out-of-touch extreme agenda and plans to help Trump force his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” noted Democratic national chairman Jaime Harrison. “Vance has championed and enabled Trump’s worst policies for years – from a national abortion ban, to whitewashing January 6, to railing against Social Security and Medicare. Let’s be clear: A Trump-Vance ticket would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future. There is so much on the line, and it’s more important than ever that we reelect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris this November.”
Meanwhile, those on the right were frustrated by Vance’s early opposition to the former president.
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— Case (@cadams84) July 15, 2024
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Vance called Trump an “idiot,” “reprehensible,” a “total fraud” and a “moral disaster,” among other things. In a private Facebook message to a former law school classmate, Vance took it one step further.
“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful),” he wrote. “Or that he’s America’s Hitler.”
After Trump ascended to the White House, though, Vance changed his tune – gradually evolving into one of the former president’s staunchest supporters.
What happened?
“I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration,” Vance told The New York Times in June.
So is Vance a genuine Trump convert? Or just another GOP political opportunist? At this point, it doesn’t matter. He convinced the only person who mattered he was loyal to the cause … and that his addition to the ticket would yield benefits.
Will it? That remains to be seen …
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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4 comments
Hey, pssst…JD’s wife is a birthright citizen. You know, one of those that the far right, including this blahg, want to ban by taking a sloppy dump on the 14th amendment..
Awkward!
You’re on FITS, the fact that he’s in an interracial marriage is already enough to make some of the commenters here highly, highly upset. The only thing that would make them even more upset is if she were Jewish.
Interesting choice. Vance has written more books than Trump has ever read.
Good pick