Republican nominee Donald Trump has announced JD Vance, Senator of Ohio, as his running mate for the 2024 election.
"After 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," Trump announced on his Truth Social platform.
But who is Vance? Here's everything you need to know.
Where is JD Vance from?
Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio, but he also grew up in Jackson, Kentucky. As a child, Vance faced many struggles. His family was poor and battled poverty. Meanwhile, his mother also struggled with drugs. As such, he spent much of his childhood with his grandmother. He later chronicled these experiences in his best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
That book came out in 2016 and later became a Netflix film.
Military Service And Career
After graduating high school, Vance enlisted in the Marines. He later served as a public affairs marine in Iraq. Later, he graduated from Ohio State University and completed a degree at Yale Law School. Following school, he worked for onservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel. He would go to found his own venture capital firm. In 2022, he ran as a Republican for the Ohio state senate.
Meet Vance's Wife And Kids
Vance is married to Usha Vance, who is a litigator for aSan Francisco and Washington, D.C. based law firm. The two were college sweethearts, meeting at Yale. They later got married in 2014. He is also a father to three young children — Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel. The family currently lives in Cincinnati but have a home in Alexandria, Virginia.
What's the history between Vance and Trump?
Vance makes an odd choice as Trump's running mate. The two did not get along at first. In 2016, the author turned senator was highly critical of Trump. He called him a demagogue who was "leading the white working class to a very dark place." He also compared him to Adolf Hitler and called himself a "a Never Trump guy."
"I'm a never-Trump guy, I never liked him," Vance said during an October 2016 interview with Charlie Rose. However, he has since changed his opinion on the former president. Following the shooting at the Trump rally, Vance denounced political violence. "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 X. "That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."
"I think we need more people like him in politics, who are energetic, dynamic, clear-headed about their ideology," Vivek Ramaswamy once said of Vance. "The only negative of it - if there is a negative to point out - is he's probably one of the best we have in the US Senate, and he's a principled fighter."
