MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump has tapped Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his 2024 vice presidential nominee, a decision that could upend the dynamic of his campaign against President Joe Biden after Trump’s assassination attempt.
“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 Truth Social on Monday from Milwaukee. “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.”
“J.D.’s book, ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country,” he added. “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…”
Vance, 39, is the youngest vice presidential nominee since former President Dwight Eisenhower picked Richard Nixon in 1952.
Trump choosing Vance comes after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt minutes into his speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday before this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Vance was active on social media in the hours after the shooting, accusing Biden and Democrats of amplifying rhetoric that “led directly” to the attempt on Trump’s life.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” he posted on X.
Vance, a Marine combat correspondent veteran and Yale Law School graduate who wrote the bestselling 2016 memoir and popular 2020 Netflix adaptation Hillbilly Elegy, has become a darling of the Make America Great Again movement and can speak to Trump’s populist base, particularly Rust Belt voters and those in Biden’s must-win so-called blue wall battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Despite only being elected to the Senate in 2022, Vance rocketed to the top of Trump’s vice presidential short list, thanks in part to his personal relationship with Donald Trump Jr. and donors in Silicon Valley, where he once worked as a venture capitalist for Republican megadonor Peter Thiel. The presidential scion will introduce Vance at the convention on Thursday.
“I think it’s [an] incredible pick,” Donald Trump Jr. told reporters on the convention floor Monday. “I think he’s an incredible guy with an amazing story, both in business and in life, and I think he’s going to be an incredible person to help unify this country.”
Vance’s past criticism of Trump has already been used by Democrats to undermine him and the former president. Vance, for example, described Trump as “cultural heroin” and “America’s Hitler” during the 2016 campaigns. In a statement, the Biden campaign suggested Vance would do what Vice President Mike Pence did not and “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.”
“As Trump’s running mate, Vance will make it his mission to enact Trump’s Project 2025 agenda at the expense of American families,” Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote. “This is someone who supports banning abortion nationwide while criticizing exceptions for rape and incest survivors; railed against the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for millions with preexisting conditions; and has admitted he wouldn’t have certified the free and fair election in 2020.”
“Billionaires and corporations are literally rooting for J.D. Vance: they know he and Trump will cut their taxes and send prices skyrocketing for everyone else,” O’Malley Dillon continued.
Trump’s top four vice presidential contenders were Vance, Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), with his campaign also vetting former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for the No. 2 spot. Burgum and Rubio received phone calls advising them of Trump’s choice on Monday afternoon.
The strengths of Burgum’s candidacy included the tech entrepreneur’s governing experience and millions in personal wealth, with the possibility of him contributing his own money to Trump’s campaign. The strengths of Rubio, himself once a presidential candidate, included his appeal to establishment Republican and Latino voters, while Scott, the only black Republican senator, similarly connects with black men with whom Trump has been making overtures to cut into Biden’s margins.
Trump had previously indicated he would not announce his vice presidential nominee until the convention, with convention fundraisers preemptively promoting the then-unknown vice presidential pick as a special guest. Biden’s grappling with Democrats reconsidering him as his party’s nominee after his first debate with Trump last month in Atlanta was also reportedly a factor in the timing.
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“As President Trump has said himself, the top criteria in selecting a vice president is a strong leader who could make a great president,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes told the Washington Examiner at the time. “But anyone telling you they know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying unless that person is named Donald J. Trump.”
Vance replaces Pence as Trump’s understudy. Pence has distanced himself from Trump since the then-president put pressure on him not to certify the 2020 Electoral College results on Jan. 6, 2021. Pence has not endorsed Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign.
