Who Is J.D. Vance, Trump’s Vice President Pick?

Former President Donald Trump announced Monday afternoon that Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) will be his running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Vance, 39, is a freshman senator from Ohio who has shifted from anti-Trump conservatism to becoming Trump’s chief acolyte and a strong supporter of America First.

In 2016, Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy, about his childhood in Jackson, Kentucky and Middletown, Ohio, made him a household name. Many urban elites interpreted it as a textbook explanation for Trump’s shocking rise. J.D. stands for James David.

Vance, a Marine Corps enlisted man and Yale Law School graduate, was not a fan of his party’s leader. In a 2016 interview with Charlie Rose, he stated, “I think Donald Trump is not the right candidate for this group of voters.” He referred to himself as a “Never Trump guy.”

It turns out he should not have said never. Vance has recently disavowed his previous position and hugged Trump.

“I was wrong about him,” Vance admitted on CNN in May. “I did not think he would be a good president, Dana, and I was very pleased to be proven wrong. That is one of the reasons I am working so hard to get him elected.

After Trump survived an assassination attempt on Saturday, Vance immediately took to X, formerly known as Twitter.

“The Biden campaign’s central premise is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at any cost,” he wrote. “That rhetoric contributed directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Vance, 39, has proven to be a political shapeshifter, initially delighting liberals with his book “Hillbilly Elegy” and anti-Trump rhetoric, but is now a firm MAGA supporter.

The senator responded to Trump’s call for unity by writing “Courageous, United, and Defiant.” “This is leadership.”

Vance has been an outspoken supporter of right-wing policy priorities such as border security, gun rights protection, and abortion restrictions. He is also a strong supporter of America First foreign policy, praising Trump for imposing tariffs on companies that outsource jobs.

He has also been a strong opponent of US aid to Ukraine. According to The Daily Beast, elite Republican donors are concerned about the possibility of Vance serving as vice president.

However, Vance has ties to some billionaire megadonors who support his isolationist views. According to Politico, Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel donated $15 million to Vance in 2022, making it the largest donation to a Senate candidate ever. Thiel also introduced Vance to other wealthy donors, including venture capitalist David Sacks, who is set to speak at the RNC.

The Ohio senator is married to Usha Chilukuri Vance, an attorney he met at Yale, and they have three children. With facial hair that Trump has described as resembling “a young Abraham Lincoln” and blue eyes so striking that some speculate he wears eyeliner, he would be the third-youngest vice president in US history, and the youngest since Richard Nixon was appointed in 1953.