Donald Trump named Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate. Vance could help appeal to working-class voters in critical Midwest battleground states.
Vance, who turns 40 in August, would be one of the youngest vice presidents and with just two years of elected experience.
Vance is seen as an early strong contender for the 2028 election.
Trump was impressed by his credentials: service in the Marines, a Yale Law School degree and ties to wealthy Silicon Valley donors from his time working in venture capital in San Francisco.
Vance came to national prominence with his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about growing up in poor, working-class America.
Vance and his wife, also a lawyer, met at Yale. They have three children.
Before entering politics, Vance worked as a lawyer in D.C., mingling with conservative reformers.
Vance was once a vehement critic of Trump. “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) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” Vance wrote privately in a Facebook message in 2016 that later became public. Vance also called himself a “Never Trump guy,” and criticised Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants.
“He has this incredible story…It is a story that was told in his book of growing up on the other side of the tracks,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R., Mont.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He said Vance would appeal “to hard working and working class Americans.”
[Photo: Screenshot/Forbes]