by Kristina Karisch
Former President Trump selected Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate Monday in a decision that will likely continue the “Make America Great Again” movement for many years to come.
The announcement came on the opening afternoon of the Republican National Convention, taking place in Milwaukee, and just two days after an assassination attempt on the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania.
It marks a meteoric political rise for Vance, who has gone from one of Trump’s most fierce GOP critics during the 2016 campaign to running alongside him for the White House in 2024. The first-term senator has greatly distanced himself from the comments he made about the former president eight years ago. Vance called Trump “noxious” and “reprehensible” and considered himself a “Never Trump guy.”
Since then, Vance has emerged as one of the most visible defenders of the former president. He reiterated in a May interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that his previous critiques of Trump were “wrong.”
“I didn’t think he was going to be a good president, Dana, and I was very, very proud to be proven wrong,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to get him elected.”
Allies have praised Vance as an articulate voice of the New Right and the MAGA movement in Congress who has built a strong personal relationship with Trump, and Vance will likely be a fierce and willing attack dog in the bruising campaign to come. And the youngest of all the major choices that Trump considered, Vance brings youth to the Republican ticket, as members of both parties express an eagerness to usher in the next generation of leaders.
The Hill’s Brett Samuels breaks down how Trump decided on Vance as his vice-presidential pick.
In Milwaukee, the mood Monday was jovial and brimming with confidence, especially when Trump — his ear covered in a bandage — made a surprise appearance on the convention floor and was greeted by cheers and raucous applause.
The party’s never been more unified,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who will speak Tuesday night with other Senate candidates, told The Hill. “The Republican Party was unified before Saturday, but now the Republican Party is not just unified but fired up in an even bigger way to win in November.”
- CBS News: Here’s what to know about the 39-year-old Vance.
- The Cincinnati Enquirer: What is “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance’s 2016 memoir?
- The Hill: Here’s what else happened on the first day of the Republican National Convention.
- Axios: Teamsters president Sean O’Brien delivered a fiery address castigating big businesses and corporate lobby groups. He said he hasn’t heard from Democrats about speaking at their August convention.
TRUMP’S LONG-AWAITED ANNOUNCEMENT is giving Democrats the chance to go on the offensive, imparting a jolt of energy into President Biden’s campaign, still reeling from a disastrous debate performance. Before boarding Air Force One Monday, Biden told reporters that Vance was “a clone of Trump on the issues” and that he did not “see any difference” between them (The New York Times).
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in an interview that Vance’s attempt to “blame Democrats” for the shooting at Trump’s rally was “shameful.”
On the social platform X, Vance wrote that “the central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” and “that rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
“That’s the kind of rhetoric that directly leads to political violence,” Garcia told the Times. “There couldn’t be a more irresponsible pick than Senator JD Vance.”