Former President Donald J. Trump has chosen Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio to be his running mate, wagering that the young senator will bring fresh energy to the Republican ticket and ensure that the movement Mr. Trump began nearly a decade ago can live on after him.
Mr. Vance, 39, is a political newcomer who entered the Senate only last year, but he has spent that time methodically ascending the conservative firmament. Once an acerbic Trump critic — attacking Mr. Trump as “reprehensible” and calling him “cultural heroin” — he won Mr. Trump’s backing in his 2022 Senate race by wholly embracing his politics and his lies about a stolen election. The endorsement lifted him above a crowded field, and ultimately to the Senate.
Mr. Vance, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley who became best known for writing the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” did not forget it. He quickly emerged as a top defender of the former president in the halls of Congress and on television, taking his cues from Mr. Trump while frequently bucking the priorities of Senator Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s longtime Republican leader.
Mr. Trump announced his choice in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, as the Republican National Convention was getting underway in Milwaukee. He said that Mr. Vance was “the person best suited” to be his potential vice president. He highlighted Mr. Vance’s time in the Marine Corps and his memoir, saying he believed Mr. Vance was a champion for hardworking people, particularly the workers and farmers in a number of key swing states.
Mr. Trump’s selection came just days after he survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, an episode that underlined the significance of his choosing a running mate who might be in line as Mr. Trump’s successor.
Mr. Vance, an ardent and vocal defender of Mr. Trump, went further than many of his allies, directly attributing the shooting to the rhetoric of President Biden and his campaign, even as Mr. Trump and his campaign called for unity.
“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,” Mr Vance wrote on X.
In Mr. Vance, Mr. Trump has tapped an ambitious ideologue who relishes the spotlight and has already shown he can energize donors on behalf of the presumptive nominee. His youth — there are nearly 40 years separating them, and Mr. Vance is the first millennial nominated to a major-party ticket — could prove a boon to the ticket, as voters have expressed concern over both Mr. Trump’s and President Biden’s ages.
Mr. Vance was formally nominated as the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee about two hours after Mr. Trump’s announcement. As Ohio’s lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, nominated him and praised his conservative bona fides, Mr. Vance beamed. With his wife, Usha, next to him, he seemed almost overcome with emotion as delegates began chanting his first name.
Culled From : The New York Times
