Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said former President Trump hasn’t mentioned being his running mate in the presidential election, despite speculation in recent months that he’s one of the contenders.
“I’ve never actually spoken to the president about VP speculation. My simple answer is, I wanna help him however I can,” Vance told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Thursday. “If he asks me, of course, I would think seriously about it. It would be a great honor.”
“I’m also happy to support the agenda in the United States Senate, and regardless, Laura, you have to remember, my job is to serve the people of Ohio. Whether it’s supporting Trump’s agenda in the Senate, or serving in some other role,” he continued.
Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has yet to announce his vice president, but Vance has solidified his status as one of Trump’s top supporters and has reportedly been included in the former president’s short list for running mates.
The Ohio senator said Thursday that regardless of receiving the nomination, he would push for more manufacturing jobs and “good prosperity to the people of Ohio and the heartland.”
Vance, who grew up in a middle-class community in Ohio that once had many manufacturing jobs, became a venture capitalist working at a firm and gained prominence with his bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy.”
During the 2016 election, Vance said he was “never Trump” but has since become one of the former president’s strongest supporters after taking office last year.
“For 40 years, we had a bipartisan consensus to ship jobs overseas, to bring unchecked migration. Trump’s stopped that,” he said. “And the real question for the Republican Party is whether we follow that lead and double down on that winning agenda, or do we try to go back to the old ways?"
“Unfortunately, Laura, as you know as well as I do, there is a critical component of the old guard, the Republican Party, that wants to go back to the old ways — more immigration, more war, less than wages for American workers,” Vance continued. “Thank God Trump is there to push back against it.”
Several other people are rumored to be on Trump’s short list, including Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).
