Trump picks Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as running mate | CBC News

Donald Trump selected U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance on Monday to serve as his vice-presidential running mate as the Republican Party officially nominated the former president as its 2024 presidential nominee at the start of the party’s national convention in Milwaukee.

In choosing Vance, Trump elevated a politician who once criticized the former president in acid terms but has since become one of his most stalwart defenders.

“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many 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,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social.

James David Vance, author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, could increase the odds of Trump supporters turning out for the Nov. 5 election as the Ohio native is deeply popular with the Republican candidate’s base.

A staunch conservative from a Republican state, Vance is unlikely to bring many new voters into Trump’s corner, however, and may even alienate some moderates. Some Trump supporters had pushed him to select a woman or person of colour as his No. 2 to expand a base that skews toward white men.

The former president, 78, survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday by a gunman whose motive remains unknown.

Several of Trump’s highest-profile backers — including former senior adviser Steve Bannon and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. — have praised Vance for pushing the Republican Party to embrace a more hands-off foreign policy approach and for supporting trade barriers.

Vance has also delighted Trump supporters with his confrontational social media presence, a relative rarity in the Senate, where many lawmakers still try to maintain a sense of decorum and civility.

At 39, Vance will represent a younger generation in an election that features Trump and President Joe Biden, 81, bringing a counterweight to the Democratic ticket that also includes Vice-President Kamala Harris, 59.

In selecting Vance, Trump passed over other possible contenders, including U.S. senators Marco Rubio and Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Vance once harsh critic of Trump

Vance’s rapid ascent has been unusual for American politics. After a troubled and impoverished childhood in southern Ohio, he served in the Marine Corps, won a scholarship to Yale Law School and later worked as a venture capitalist in San Francisco.

He rose to prominence after 2016 with his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, in which he explored the socioeconomic issues of his hometown and the cycle of poverty that has entrapped Americans in the Appalachian Mountains, where his mother and her family are from.

In the book, Vance criticized what he saw as a self-destructive culture in rural America and sought to explain Trump’s popularity among impoverished white Americans.

WATCH | Analyst breaks down why Trump chose Vance:

Republicans were looking for an ‘attack dog’ for VP, says analyst

Many are hoping for American political leaders to call for calm after Donald Trump’s assassination attempt, but will the Republicans pick for VP accomplish that? One analyst weighs in on what to expect from J.D. Vance.

Vance himself was harshly critical of Trump before and after the latter’s 2016 election win against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, calling him an “idiot” and “America’s Hitler,” among other epithets.

But as Vance geared up to run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2022, he transformed into one of the former president’s most consistent defenders, supporting Trump even when some Senate colleagues declined to do so.

Trump endorsed Vance that year, despite his previous comments: “Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades.”

WATCH | What we know about the shooter at the Trump rally:

What is known about Trump’s shooter — and how the FBI is trying to fill in the gaps

The FBI has uncovered bits and pieces of the life of the 20-year-old gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump, but it’s still unclear what prompted him to go after the former U.S. president. Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former senior FBI profiler and special agent, explains what the identification process is like.

Vance has played down the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He said he “doubted” Mike Pence’s life was in danger, despite violent protesters getting within yards of the former vice-president as Secret Service agents rushed him out of the Capitol building. 

Vance has also echoed Trump’s criticisms of how the Justice Department has prosecuted Jan. 6 rioters, accusing the department of disregarding due process.

In February, he declined to criticize Trump for encouraging Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack America’s NATO allies if they failed to increase their defence spending.

While the Republican Party historically stood for free markets and embraced foreign intervention as an important national-security tool, Trump’s 2016 election opened up significant rifts within the party. Vance has been one of the most vocal opponents of continued aid to Ukraine in the Senate, a stance at odds with many Republican legislative leaders.

On the campaign trail, the former venture capitalist has also served as a bridge between Trump associates and wealthy Silicon Valley donors, many of whom have opened their wallets to Trump this election.

WATCH | Vance spoke to CBC in 2016: 

Why is Trump’s message resonating with some American voters?

‘I think people don’t love Trump, but they’re willing to listen to him because he’s diagnosing the problems around them,’ says author J.D. Vance.

Still, Vance’s selection has its detractors among Trump associates, notably those who had wanted Trump to select a diverse vice-presidential candidate. Though Trump and Biden are virtually tied in most national polls, Trump trails the Democratic president by significant margins among women and Black Americans.

Unsuccessful candidates informed with hours to spare

Many of Trump’s closest advisers did not know until Monday who the former president would pick.

Burgum and Rubio received phone calls informing them they would not be selected only hours before Trump officially tapped Vance, according to four sources with knowledge of those interactions.

In a statement, the Biden campaign said Trump chose Vance because the Ohio senator would not stand up to him if the former president committed an authoritarian act while in office.

“Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” Biden-Harris 2024 chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

Pence, who twice served as Trump’s running mate, declined to endorse his former boss in this year’s election.

Some Trump associates privately questioned whether it would be wise to take Vance out of the Senate with Democrats and Republicans vying for control of the upper chamber. Democrats hold a one-seat advantage, though they are likely to lose ground in the November election.

Ohio, while safely Republican in presidential elections, does occasionally elect Democrats in other races. Vance won his 2022 election by six percentage points.