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MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump selected Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio on Monday as his running mate, adding youth to the ticket amid voter concerns about age and the presidency, days after he was shot by a would-be assassin.
“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,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump delivered the highly anticipated announcement two days after he nearly lost his life and hours after a federal judge dismissed the classified documents criminal case against him.
The historic succession of events has reshuffled the presidential race over 48 hours.
The Vance pick cements the party’s ticket ahead of Mr. Trump’s acceptance of the party’s nomination Thursday at the national convention, where Republicans are sending a unified message. Mr. Trump was formally nominated by convention delegates Monday afternoon.
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While Republicans are generating a sense of togetherness, a divide is growing among Democrats over ditching President Biden as their nominee because of concerns about his age and mental health.
In his announcement, Mr. Trump cited Mr. Vance’s experience as a Marine, editor of the Yale Law Journal and bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” his 2016 memoir that “championed the hardworking men and women of our country.”
About an hour after Mr. Trump’s announcement, Republicans formally nominated Mr. Vance to the 2024 ticket. Mr. Vance won the nomination by voice vote. He stood on the floor with his wife, Usha, and kissed her as his name was announced.
Mr. Vance ascended to the vice presidential nomination 18 months after he began serving his first term in the Senate and after reversing his criticisms of Mr. Trump in 2016. Mr. Vance once called Mr. Trump an “idiot” and referred to himself as a “never Trumper.”
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted nominated Mr. Vance as a candidate who embodies Mr. Trump’s “America First” agenda.
He introduced Mr. Vance as “a man who loves America and will represent our people with moral courage, strength and honor.”
Mr. Vance will address the convention crowd later this week.
Mr. Biden, reacting to the news, called Mr. Vance “a clone of Trump on the issues.”
Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Mr. Trump chose Mr. Vance “because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people.”
“This is someone who supports banning abortion nationwide while criticizing exceptions for rape and incest survivors; railed against the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for millions with preexisting conditions; and has admitted he wouldn’t have certified the free and fair election in 2020,” she said.
Mr. Trump said the Ohio Republican will be “strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.”
In Mr. Vance, Mr. Trump has chosen a fresh face with a firm grasp of what drives the MAGA movement, which has redefined the Republican Party.
The two are ideologically aligned around populist conservatism. Mr. Vance has gone further than most other Republicans in defending Mr. Trump’s efforts to stop Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s victory in 2020 and in blaming Democrats for the shooting at a campaign rally Saturday.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Mr. Vance said. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
At 39, Mr. Vance brings a new generation of leadership to the ticket in a race featuring the oldest presidential candidates ever. Mr. Biden is 81, and Mr. Trump is 78.
Mr. Vance does not come from a battleground state, but his biography as the son of a working-class family from Appalachia could help harden Mr. Trump’s grip on working-class voters in the Rust Belt.
Those voters have soured on Mr. Biden, and Democrats and have embraced Mr. Trump’s populist message on trade, immigration and foreign wars.
Mr. Vance’s embrace of the MAGA brand threatens to turn off some Republicans who have never been comfortable with Mr. Trump’s leadership of the party. That includes voters who cast ballots for former Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Republican primary race.
Whether Mr. Vance can help Mr. Trump expand the electoral map remains to be seen.
The pick marks a departure from when Mr. Trump turned to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence eight years ago. Mr. Pence was cut from a traditional conservative mold and was a proven warrior for Christian conservatives. The move helped social and religious conservatives set aside some of their concerns about the twice-divorced Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump rewarded social and religious conservatives by appointing three conservative justices to the Supreme Court — Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — who swung the court’s ideological bent and helped overturn the 1973 Roe. v. Wade ruling that provided a national right to abortion.
Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump parted ways after Mr. Pence rejected his plea for him to block the certification of Mr. Biden’s win in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
The decision to tap Mr. Vance proves that Mr. Trump has forgiven him for past criticisms and trusts that he will be unyieldingly loyal.
Mr. Vance and his wife, an Indian American and a Hindu woman whom he met in law school, have three children together. He was baptized Catholic in 2019.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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