U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has been officially announced as former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention (RNC).
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of 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,” said Trump. “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…”
The announcement came after months of speculation, as President Trump avoided naming his running mate while mentioning some possibilities.
Sen. Vance emerged as one of the top contenders for Trump’s running mate, alongside Gov. Doug Burgum (D-N.D.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
Vance, 39, rose to prominence prior to his political career with his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, in which he recounted his childhood and family history of economic hardship and manual labor jobs, while highlighting the social decay that led to some of those struggles.
Vance’s book, which also recounts his escape from his family’s history of poverty to enter law school, sheds light on the struggles facing many poor, white Americans, who are largely ignored by Democrats and many Republican politicians.
The book quickly became a national success, even sparking a film adaptation, and served as Vance’s entry into the public sphere.
After graduating from high school and before receiving his law degree in 2013, Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Iraq during the Iraq War.
During the 2016 election, Vance was critical of Trump, and even suggested that he might vote for a third-party candidate, but his position on Trump has since changed drastically.
Vance decided to enter the Ohio Senate race in 2021, when he publicly apologized for his past negative comments about Trump and received an endorsement from the former president.
During the 2022 midterm election, Vance was elected to the Senate, where he has been a staunch supporter of Trump and has pushed for more populist positions, generally standing against the status quo of the administrative state.
Vance has historically stood against mandates for the COVID vaccine, and has taken a strong stance on addressing the ongoing opioid crisis and its devastating effects on middle Americans.
Before running for senate, Vance even established a non-profit dedicated to helping people struggling with opioid abuse, a major theme from his memoir.
As part of his fight against the opioid crisis while in the Senate, Vance has consistently advocated for a secure border and has pushed to prioritize border security over sending billions of taxpayer dollars to foreign nations.
Vance has been one of Congress’s most outspoken critics of the U.S.’s continued funding of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s regime in Ukraine, which has been fighting — and losing — an expensive war with Russia since early 2022.
In addition to opposing the use of taxpayer funds to prop-up a regime deemed too corrupt to join NATO, Vance has been outspoken about the need to approach the situation with careful diplomacy rather than continuing to risk a global war with Russia.
This position puts Vance in line with Trump, who, throughout his campaign, has promised to bring about a swift and diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine.
Unsurprisingly, Vance’s nomination drew harsh criticism from bellicose neoconservatives in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Despite his opposition to foreign aid to Ukraine, Vance has continued to support using taxpayer money to fund Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Just two days before Trump announced Vance as his running mate, the senator issued a harsh criticism of the pitched Democrat rhetoric that has come to dominate their messaging to base voters. Those messages have framed Trump as a prospective tyrant bent on the destruction of American democracy.
In his statement, Vance explicitly accused the Biden campaign of inciting the violent assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday, an attack that left the former president with a minor bullet wound and left an audience member dead.
[RELATED: TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: Bloody Don Fist Bumps After Shooter Fires at PA Rally…]
“Today is not just some isolated incident. 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,” said Vance on X.
This guy can not only walk the walk, he can talk the talk. Semper fi.
I’m just now digging deep into this guy, but so far, I’d like to see him as President in 2028, ‘n 2032,…..