Donald Trump has chosen Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate as the former US president looks to return to the White House.
Vance, 39, rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which was published as Trump was first running for president.
Vance was elected to the United States Senate in 2022 and has become one of the staunchest champions of the former president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy and immigration.
But he is largely untested in national politics and is joining the Trump ticket at an extraordinary moment.
An attempted assassination of Trump at a rally on Saturday has shaken the campaign, bringing new attention to the nation’s coarse political rhetoric, and reinforcing the importance of those who are one heartbeat away from the presidency.
From rural Ohio to the Marine Corps
Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, served in the Marine Corps, including in Iraq, and graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School.
From there, he joined a Silicon Valley investment firm before returning to Ohio to launch a non-profit that he said would aim to develop opioid addiction treatments that might be “scaled nationally”.
Ultimately, Our Ohio Renewal failed at that mission and was shuttered.
Bestselling author
Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy earned him a reputation as someone who could help explain Trump’s appeal in middle America, and especially among the working-class, rural white voters who helped Trump win the presidency in 2016.
The book detailed life in Appalachian communities that drifted from a Democratic Party many residents found disconnected from their daily travails.
While the book was a bestseller, it was also criticised for sometimes oversimplifying rural life and ignoring the role of racism in modern politics.
Trump critic-turned-stanch supporter
During the early stages of Trump’s political career, Vance cast him as “a total fraud,” “a moral disaster” and “America’s Hitler”.
But like many Republicans who sought relevance in the Trump era, Vance eventually shifted his tone. He said he was proved wrong by Trump’s performance in office and evolved into one of his most steadfast defenders.
Vance was rewarded for his turnaround during his bid for an open Senate seat in 2022, during which he landed Trump’s coveted endorsement and rode it to victory in a crowded Republican primary and a general election hard fought by Democrats.
He was elected to the Senate in 2022 and has since become one of the staunchest champions of the former president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda.
As a senator, Vance has shown some willingness to work across the aisle.
He and Ohio’s senior Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, have teamed up on a number of issues important to the state, including fighting for funding for a $20bn chip facility Intel is building in central Ohio and introducing rail safety legislation in response to the fiery 2023 freight-train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Views on Israel-Palestine conflict
Vance is a staunch supporter of Israel, offering an “America First with an Israel exception” worldview.
“America is not good at micromanaging wars in the Middle East… I think that our attitude vis-a-vis the Israelis should be look, we’re not good at micromanaging Middle Eastern wars, the Israelis are our allies, let them prosecute this war the way they see fit,” he told the CNN network in an interview in May.
Vance was among the first to blame the Biden administration for allegedly empowering Hamas to commit the October 7 attack. Hours after the attack, he said the “Americans must face a stark truth: our tax dollars funded this”, according to media reports.
“Money is fungible, and many of the dollars we sent to Iran are being used to now kill innocent people. This must stop. Israel has every right to defend itself. I wish our friends well, but most of all I wish they weren’t fighting against weapons bought with our money,” he said.
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