Former president Donald Trump tapped Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) as his vice president nominee on Monday in a bid to solidify his polling leads in the Rust Belt.
The choice cements Vance’s meteoric rise in the GOP since he won his first Senate race in 2022. A leader of the nationalist and "realignment" corner of the party, Vance has called for significant breaks from traditional Republican orthodoxy on issues related to trade and foreign affairs.
A native of Middletown, Ohio, Vance detailed his upbringing in his acclaimed 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was later adapted into a film directed by Ron Howard. His family’s struggles with poverty and addiction, Vance has said on multiple occasions, informed his political journey.
From his humble roots in Ohio, Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps and matriculated from the Ohio State University. He graduated from Yale Law School in 2013.
Vance briefly worked at a white-shoe law firm before he began his career as a venture capitalist. Vance’s 2022 Senate race was his foray into politics and largely an insurgent campaign against more established Ohio political figures.
Bolstered by a primary endorsement from Trump, Vance secured the nomination with 32 percent of the vote. He would later defeat Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio), whose campaign focused on winning back white working class voters, by more than 6 points.
During his brief tenure in the Senate, Vance has focused on economic populist measures such as revoking China’s most favored nation status and beefing up antitrust enforcement. A hardliner on immigration, Vance has been one of Trump’s biggest supporters in the Senate and one of his earliest endorses in the 2024 presidential primary.
His message of economic nationalism could potentially assist Trump in the rust belt, which has a disproportionate share of white working class voters. Polls show Trump leading in most rust belt states, which would be his clearest path to victory.
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