Ohio Senator JD Vance has been named as the Republican vice presidential candidate for the November election.
Vance is a 39-year-old Marine Corps veteran who rose to prominence with his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” that tells of the hardships he faced growing up in Appalachian Kentucky and Ohio.
When Trump first ran for president that same year, Vance called him “dangerous” and “unfit for office.”
However, Vance was introduced to the Trump family when Donald Trump Jr. became a fan of his book. He eventually met with Trump as president in 2021.
Once he was elected as a senator for Ohio in 2023, Vance fiercely defended Trump’s policies and behavior, which he said resonated with voters who felt forgotten by the party.
“He understands what Trump is running on and, unlike the rest of the Republican Party in Washington, agrees with it,” conservative commentator Tucker Carlson told Reuters.
Ideologically, Vance has been described by the president of the Heritage Foundation as a leading conservative voice on key issues including free market economics, a less interventionist foreign policy and “American culture writ large.”
Democrats have called Vance an extremist on issues like abortion.
Vance signaled support for a nationwide 15-week ban during his senate campaign, but he softened his stance after Ohio voters .
In recent days, Vance attracted controversy for his comments on the against Trump.
“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 social media. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
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