image source, Good pictures
Donald Trump has named former Republican and Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.
Delegates to the Republican National Convention (RNC) formally elected Mr Vance, 39, on Monday, after Trump announced on his social media site that he had chosen him after “long deliberation and thought”.
Mr Vance is a Yale-educated venture capitalist and author of the best-selling memoir-turned-film Hillbilly Elegy.
He had previously been critical of his new running mate, once privately suggesting Trump was “America’s Hitler,” but has since become a staunch supporter.
- author, Graeme Baker
- stock, BBC News, Washington
In the 2022 midterm elections, she won a seat in the U.S. Senate with Trump’s endorsement — her first term elected to public office.
After his confirmation as Trump’s running mate, Mr Vance took aim at Joe Biden, saying on Fox News that Americans had elected an “empty vessel” in 2020 and that he was now an “incompetent president”.
He said Democrats had lied about Mr Biden’s health and voters could “reward or punish that behavior” in November.
Mr Vance added that he had said “bad things” about Trump but it was important to admit he was wrong.
An Ohio native, Mr Vance gained attention after the release of Hillbilly Elegy, which tells of his blue-collar upbringing and how it influenced his politics.
“This book championed the hardworking men and women of our country,” Trump said on the Truth Community site.
“As Vice President, JD will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our troops, and do everything in my power to help me make America great again,” he continued.
Mr Vance was confirmed at this week’s RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He entered the arena with his wife, Usha, on Monday and greeted delegates to a country song with a chorus of “Let’s Build America First.”
Addressing the crowd at the event’s basketball arena, Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno said: “For JD, America First is more than just a slogan. It’s his north star.”
“This is an incredible election,” Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. said at the RNC. “A great choice indeed.”
The choice came before the RNC opened in Milwaukee on Monday, two days after Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Subsequently, Mr Vance tweeted that the Democrats’ rhetoric “led directly to the assassination attempt of President Trump”.
Trump has said he will tone down his RNC speech and call for national unity.
JD Vance, MAGA man
Mr. Vance has become an increasingly important player in the world of Make America Great Again [MAGA] Politics.
The poll suggests the former president knows the election will be won and lost in a handful of industrial Midwestern battleground states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
In the Senate he has been one of the biggest congressional skeptics of aid to Ukraine.
In recent months, he has introduced bills to freeze federal funding to universities where students have protested against the Gaza war or employ undocumented immigrants.
In March, he sponsored legislation that would have kicked the Chinese government out of U.S. capital markets if it did not follow international trade laws.
He also appeared frequently at Trump’s campaign events and traveled to New York City to attend Trump’s fraud investigation.
Mr Vance, who was baptized a Catholic in 2019, is anti-abortion. He has backed Trump’s continued assertion that the issue is up to individual states.
He is one of the youngest vice presidential nominees in American history.
Ohio Lieutenant Governor John Husted, who attended the RNC, called Mr Vance “the living embodiment of the American dream”.
“He came from humble beginnings and he never forgot where he came from,” she said.
Mr Vance and Mr Trump will face Democratic nominees President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 general election.
In brief comments to reporters on Monday, Mr Biden criticized Mr Vance as a “Trump clone at issue”.
The Biden campaign said Trump chose Mr Vance because of what Vance would do [Trump’s former Vice-President] Mike Pence … will not bend over backwards to implement Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it violates the law and harms the American people”.
