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Donald Trump<\/a> named Sen. JD Vance<\/a> of Ohio as his running mate on Monday, choosing a onetime critic who became a loyal ally and is now the first millennial to join a major-party ticket at a time of deep concern about the advanced age of America\u2019s political leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter 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,\u201d Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.<\/p>\n The 39-year-old Vance rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, \u201cHillbilly Elegy.\u201d He was elected to the Senate in 2022 and has become one of the staunchest champions of the former president\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy and immigration.<\/p>\n But he is largely untested in national politics and is joining the Trump ticket at an extraordinary moment. An attempted assassination<\/a> of Trump at a rally Saturday has shaken the campaign, bringing new attention to the nation\u2019s coarse political rhetoric and reinforcing the importance of those who are one heartbeat away from the presidency.<\/p>\n Vance himself faced criticism in the wake of the shooting for a post on X<\/a> that suggested President Joe Biden was to blame for the violence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump<\/a> is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,\u201d Vance wrote. \u201cThat rhetoric led directly to President Trump\u2019s attempted assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n Law enforcement has not yet specified a motivation for the shooting. Still, the pick is sure to energize Trump\u2019s loyal base. Vance has become a fixture on the conservative media circuit and frequently spars with reporters on Capitol Hill, helping establish him as the kind of leader who could carry Trump\u2019s mantle into the future, beginning with the next presidential election in 2028.<\/p>\n But the pick also means that two white men will now lead the Republican ticket at a time when Trump has sought to make inroads with Black and Latino voters.<\/p>\n In \u201cHillbilly Elegy,\u201d Vance 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 criticized for sometimes oversimplifying rural life and ignoring the role of racism in modern politics.<\/p>\n Vance\u2019s fame grew in tandem with Trump\u2019s unlikely rise from a reality television star to Republican presidential nominee and eventually president. During the early stages of Trump\u2019s political career, Vance cast him as \u201ca total fraud,\u201d \u201ca moral disaster\u201d and \u201cAmerica\u2019s Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n But like many Republicans who sought relevance in the Trump era, Vance eventually shifted his tone. He said he was proved wrong by Trump\u2019s performance in office and evolved into one of his most steadfast defenders.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think he was going to be a good president,\u201d Vance recently told Fox<\/a> News Channel. \u201cHe was a great president. And it\u2019s one of the reasons why I\u2019m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.\u201d<\/p>\n Vance was rewarded for his turnaround during his bid for an open Senate seat in 2022, during which he landed Trump\u2019s coveted endorsement and rode it to victory in a crowded Republican primary and a general election hard fought by Democrats. He is close to Trump\u2019s son Donald Jr.<\/p>\n Vance is now a Trump loyalist who has challenged the legitimacy of criminal prosecutions and civil verdicts against him and questions the results of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n He told ABC News in February that, if he had been vice president on Jan. 6, 2021, he would have told states where Trump disputed Biden wins \u201cthat we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Many states adopted emergency measures four years ago to allow people to vote safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. But judges, election officials in both parties and Trump\u2019s own attorney general have concluded there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n The relationship between Vance and Trump has been symbiotic.<\/p>\n Vance\u2019s book \u2014 subtitled \u201cA Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis\u201d \u2014 was embraced for its insights into Trump\u2019s appeal in middle America<\/a>, where manufacturing job losses and the opioid crisis had driven many families like his into poverty, abuse and addiction.<\/p>\n The tale of Vance\u2019s hardscrabble childhood in Middletown, Ohio, where he was born, and his familial eastern Kentucky hills region also captivated Hollywood. Ron Howard made it into a 2020 movie starring Amy Adams as Vance\u2019s mother and Glenn Close as his beloved \u201cMamaw.\u201d<\/p>\n With his grandmother\u2019s encouragement, Vance went on to serve in the Marine Corps, including in Iraq, and to graduate from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. From there, he joined a Silicon Valley investment firm before returning to Ohio to launch a nonprofit that he said would aim to develop opioid addiction treatments that might be \u201cscaled nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, Our Ohio Renewal failed at that mission<\/a> and was shuttered. During the 2022 campaign, then-U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, his Democratic rival, charged that the charity was little more than a front for Vance\u2019s political ambitions. Ryan pointed to reports that the organization made payments to a Vance political adviser and conducted public opinion polling, even as its actual efforts to address addiction largely floundered. Vance denied the characterization.<\/p>\n As a senator, Vance has shown some willingness to work across the aisle. He and Ohio\u2019s senior senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, have teamed up on a number of issues important to the state, including fighting for funding for a $20 billion chip facility Intel is building<\/a> in central Ohio and introducing rail safety legislation<\/a> in response to the fiery derailment in East Palestine, Ohio<\/a>.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Michelle L. Price and Will Weissert contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u2018Total fraud\u2019<\/h2>\n
From Ohio to Silicon Valley<\/h2>\n