Former president Donald Trump announced Senator J. D. Vance (R., Ohio) as his 2024 running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Ahead of the announcement, Trump’s short-list reportedly included Florida Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, though he had vetted as many as eight possible contenders, with the longer list also including Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, New York Representative Elise Stefanik, Florida Representative Byron Donalds and former housing secretary Ben Carson.
Rubio and Burgum were reportedly informed on Monday that they were not going to be selected as Trump’s running mate hours before the final decision was announced. Both are scheduled to deliver speeches at the GOP convention.
Vance, an Ohio-based venture capitalist and the author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, entered politics less than two years ago when he bested then-Congressman Tim Ryan to serve as Ohio’s junior senator.
Vance was able to beat out a crowded GOP primary field in the race thanks to an endorsement from Trump, despite having once been a staunch critic of the former president.
“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 in a Truth Social post announcing the pick. Two hours later, Vance took the floor at the GOP convention and formally received the vice presidential nomination.
Vance, previously a self-described “never-Trump guy,” once called Trump “cultural heroin” and dismissed his policy proposals as ranging from “immoral to absurd.” In a private message to a law school friend, he went so far as to refer to Trump as “America’s Hitler.”
The 39-year-old Marine Corps veteran has since turned into one of the former president’s most loyal supporters.
Vance’s pro-Trump shift began publicly in February 2018, when he said Trump was “one of the few political leaders in America that recognizes the frustration that exists in large parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and so forth.”
That Vance emerged as Trump’s VP pick from the shortlist perhaps comes as little surprise, as the former president had identified issues with his other potential picks.
Rubio, like Trump, lives in Florida. That both men live in the same state could have created residency complications in receiving all of Florida’s 30 electoral votes, unless one of them were to move out of state.
Meanwhile, Trump expressed concern over Burgum having signed a six-week abortion ban in North Dakota. Trump called it a “pretty strong” ban.
This cycle marks Trump’s third time running for president, but will be the first where he will not be joined by former running mate Mike Pence, who has been blacklisted from Trump world over his refusal to entertain efforts to overturn the 2020 election results when he served as vice president to Trump.
Trump chose Pence out of a shortlist of three candidates in 2016.
Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes previously told Axios that Trump’s top criteria in selecting a VP was to find someone who is “a strong leader who could make a great president.”
Reportedly not a factor, however, was the potential that President Biden could exit the race over concerns about his mental acuity, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential replacement.
“Whether we plan for [Biden] or anyone else, the planning, I think it’s the same,” Trump previously told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade.
“I think I’m pretty well set in my own mind, but you know, you got some good people, and I have changed a little bit, but you have, they’re all great — anyone would be fantastic.” he added.
The announcement comes days after Trump survived a failed assassination attempt at a political rally in Butler, Pa.
Shortly after the shooting, Vance took to social-media to say the attack was “not just some isolated incident.”
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote on X. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”