Few Things You Should Know About JD Vance, Donald Trump’s Vice President
Trump announced his VP pick on social media just before he was to accept the presidential nomination in Milwaukee on Monday.
Former President, Donald Trump has chosen Sen. JD Vance of Ohio to be his vice presidential running mate this November.
Trump said in his social media post, “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.”
The former president noted that Vance’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” was a bestseller that “championed the hardworking men and women of our Country.” And he pointed to Vance’s previous career as a venture capitalist.
Below are few things to know about JD Vance, Trump’s Vice President
• Vance—a 39-year-old veteran of the Iraq War, Yale-educated lawyer and former venture capitalist—was elected to the Senate in 2022 after Trump endorsed him, which helped him beat GOP primary challenger Josh Mandel and Democratic nominee Tim Ryan.
• Billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was a big supporter of Vance during his Senate run, donating about $15 million—the largest amount ever to boost an individual Senate candidate, according to Politico—to support Vance, who said in March Thiel is “a very fascinating and knowledgeable person” he likes to bounce ideas off of.
• A one-time Thiel employee, Vance rose to prominence in 2016 when his memoir chronicling the social, economic and cultural effects of manufacturing’s decline in the Ohio town he grew up in, “Hillbilly Elegy,” wasreleased.
• His campaign website lists his priorities as reducing unnecessary spending and inflation, boosting domestic oil and gas production, combating the drug and opioid epidemic, ending abortion, protecting the southern border and changing immigration policy.
• Vance is a firebrand known for his sometimes controversial rhetoric: After Trump was shot at on Saturday, Vance suggested in a tweet that President Joe Biden’s campaign strategy “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination” by suggesting Trump “is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.”
• Though Vance hasn’t always supported Trump, he has grown to be a defender of and campaigner for the former president and his ideas—including his views on trade policy and limiting foreign aid—and he has developed a close relationship with Donald Trump, Jr., who is expected to formally introduce Trump’s running mate Monday.
• He is married to a lawyer who was a Supreme Court clerk. Vance met his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, at Yale, where she received both her undergraduate and law degrees. She spent a year clerking for future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served as an appeals court judge in Washington, followed by a year as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts.
She had been a trial lawyer for the Munger, Tolles and Olson law firm. Her law firm announced Monday that she had left the firm.
“Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career,” Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement.
• Vance has adopted Trump’s rhetoric about Jan. 6. On the 2020 election, he said he wouldn’t have certified the results immediately if he had been vice president and said Trump had “a very legitimate grievance.” He has put conditions on honoring the results of the 2024 election that echo Trump’s. A litany of government and outside investigations have not found any election fraud that could have swung the outcome of Trump’s 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
• In the Senate, Vance sometimes embraces bipartisanship. He and Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown co-sponsored a railway safety bill following a fiery train derailment in the Ohio village of East Palestine. He’s sponsored legislation extending and increasing funding for Great Lakes restoration, and supported bipartisan legislation boosting workers and families.
• Vance can articulate Trump’s vision. People familiar with the vice presidential vetting process said Vance would bring to the GOP ticket debating skills and the ability to articulate Trump’s vision.
Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, said Vance compellingly articulates the America First world view and could help Trump in states he closely lost in 2020, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, that share Ohio’s values, demographics and economy.
