Donald Trump has picked Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his official Vice Presidential running mate.
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 said. The former president highlighted Mr. Vance’s record as a Marine, a graduate of Yale Law School, and a bestselling author.
Mr. Vance, at just 39 years old, will be the youngest vice presidential nominee of a major political party since President Nixon ran with President Eisenhower in 1952. The Ohio senator was elected in just 2022, making him a candidate with some of the least experience in modern history.
He has made his mark as an “anti-woke” warrior in the upper chamber, and has made it clear that American foreign policy must be geared much more toward the interests of the American middle class rather than the more obscure goals of protecting democracy and upholding international defense obligations.
Mr. Vance’s stances on foreign policy issues — including saying that America should play a small, if not nonexistent, role in helping Ukraine in their war with Russia — does not frighten some of the more establishment members of his party.
Senator Cornyn, the number two Republican in the upper chamber, tells the Sun that the GOP has been having thoughtful foreign policy debates within the party for more than 100 years.
“These discussions on how active the United States ought to be around the world have been long-standing disputes, going back to at least World War I,” Mr. Cornyn said, adding that he was happy to see “a new generation of people” taking the helm of the Republican Party.
A senior advisor to Trump who was granted anonymity to speak freely tells the Sun that choosing Mr. Vance as the veep candidate is a sign that the GOP is playing offense between now and November.
“J.D. [Vance] is going to do well with veterans. Huge veteran population in New Hampshire … Hug veteran population in Virginia,” the source says. “It’s gonna be a battle to the end. Why was Vance the best pick for that? Because he’s young, because he’s a Marine. … There are alot of people who said: ‘Leave him in the U.S. Senate’, and there are a lot of people who said that because he may have been the president’s best advocate in the Senate.”
Speaker McCarthy, who spoke briefly to the Sun after the announcement, says Mr. Vance will held the party do well in the typical “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Vance was previously vocally anti-Trump before changing his mind.
Of the various possibilities floated as a possible Trump VP pick, Vance is a better choice than Nikki Haley (duh), Marco Rubio (a lightweight I never understood the appeal of), better than Doug Burgum for age-balancing the ticket (though not on executive governance experience), and possibly not as electorally savvy as Tim Scott. Maybe the blue collar Hillbilly Elegy author will help Trump further crack the “blue wall,” though I think Trump scooped all the votes in rural white demographics he’s going to, especially with the Biden Recession still raging. Trump leads in Ohio by 10+ points, so winning Vance’s home state (a traditional VP pick criteria) isn’t a concern. Also, Vance himself only won the state by six points in his 2022 Senate race.
I’m enthusiastically behind Vance’s anti-woke crusade, though Trump should already have all the anti-woke votes locked up.
Once of the biggest drivers behind the Vance pick may simply be loyalty, an area Trump obviously felt previous Vice President Mike Pence was lacking in.
Trump seems to have a deeper innate understanding of the American electorate than anyone in my lifetime save Ronald Reagan, and frequently decisions that seem puzzling at first (even to me) have a way of working out. There’s an extremely high chance the Vance VP pick will work out as well.
Tags: J. D. Vance, John Cornyn, Ohio, Republican National Convention, Republicans, Russo-Ukrainian War, Veepstakes
“Once of the biggest drivers behind the Vance pick may simply be loyalty,..”
“Trust” is a better fit. Vance is a Marine. It is reasonably certain that he is is loyal to this country—more so than to any political party. This makes him predictable and Prediction is Control. This will mitigate some of the chaos that characterized Trump’s first term of office.
The drawback here is that the vacated Senate seat is subject to Gov. Mike DeWine’s control. He is more likely to appoint Frank LaRise to fill the position than Jim Jordan.
I have never liked DeWine but I make a public vow to kiss his ring if he raises up Jim Jordan to the US Senator.
Shucky darn, I sure hate autocorrect.
1: Yale Law school degree. This should help with the suburban “we’re not populists” vote
2: I listened to him talk for 5 minutes on why the US should be backing Israel. Unlike Trump, and Bush, he didn’t make me cringe.
3: His wife is ethnically Indian (dot, not feather). Daughter of legal immigrants. Another big help with the suburban crowd
4: He mocks childless cat ladies who want to make the rest of us as miserable as they are.
My first choice was RDS. My second was Youngkin. But JD was an acceptable third choice, and is a lot better, IMHO, than pretty much any other competitor
Even before this weekend, I was of the opinion that one of the most important characteristics of the VP pick was that they, like Cheney in his day, should be someone of whom the left saw no advantage in installing in the Oval Office. While Vance would not necessarily be my first pick, if he can scare off other gunmen and perform the necessary duties should worst come to worst, then he’s got my support.
I wonder how Trump decided on Pence? His personnel picks ranged from superb to awful. Clearly his inexperience left him depending on his advisers, again ranging from excellent to god awful. One hopes his native intelligence. experience will cause him not to repeat the mistakes of his first term.
We will know if he allows any holdovers from the Biden regime to remain.