Former President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he has chosen Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance to be his 2024 vice-presidential running mate. Trump’s decision ends months of speculation over who would join the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s ticket for his rematch against President Joe Biden in November. Vance, 39, was one of several people rumored to be on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist earlier this year, and one of three names elevated to finalist status in recent weeks (alongside North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio). Insiders say that Vance’s youth and ‘celebrity status’ amongst conservatives were a big draw for Trump.
Moments after Trump revealed his pick during the roll call vote at the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the crowd on the convention floor broke into chants of “JD!” “JD!” He and Vance are expected to formally accept their party’s nominations during the convention.
Trump’s announcement on his Truth Social platform read:
Vance rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which detailed his journey from his childhood (riddled by drug addiction and abuse), to him going on to earn a Yale Law School degree, which opened doors for him in Silicon Valley — the book was later turned into a 2020 Netflix feature film starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.
Vance was later elected to the Senate in 2022, with no prior political experience. Once a fierce critic of the former president (notably comparing him to an ‘opioid’ and saying he could be “America’s Hitler)” Vance changed his tune about Trump ahead of his 2022 Senate race, and has since become one of the staunchest champions of the former president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy and immigration. Vance went so far as to delete his past controversial tweets about the former president, and secured Trump’s support in Ohio’s GOP primary. Trump noted at a pro-Vance rally during the 2022 midterms:
“He’s a guy that said some bad s— about me .. But I have to do what I have to do [by endorsing him for Senate]. We have to pick somebody that can win.”
Senator Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, who works as a litigator, live in Cincinnati with their three children: ages 7, 4 and 2.
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