Donald Trump has chosen Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, ending months of speculation about who would be the Republican nominee to help him challenge President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“After much deliberation and consideration, and given the tremendous talents of many others, I have determined that the person best suited to serve as Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the great state of Ohio,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday.
Vance was officially selected as Trump's vice presidential running mate later Monday afternoon, during the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Trump was officially selected as the Republican presidential nominee earlier today.
Trump's vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), arrives on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Andrew Harnick | Getty Images
Trump's selection is a huge shock to the 39-year-old Vance, who joined the Senate as a political newcomer less than two years ago.
This also marks the culmination of a long-standing shift toward Trumpism for Vance, who was previously an outspoken critic of Trump.
Vance gained fame in 2016 with his best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which traces his rural Ohio upbringing and reflects on the culture and politics of Appalachia.
Although not without criticism, the book quickly earned Vance a reputation as a trenchant political analyst who, despite his Ivy League education, had a unique sense of how the white working class viewed the rest of the country.
In the private sector, Vance worked at Mithril Capital, the venture capital firm run by Peter Thiel, and started his own venture capital firm, Narya, in 2019.
Vance ran in 2022 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican. Vance defeated former Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio, by a margin of 53% to 47%, and took office in January 2023.
In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that aired Monday night, Vance described receiving a call from Trump earlier in the day asking him to be his vice president.
“He just said, ‘Look, I think we have to save this country. I think you’re the guy who can help me the best way. You can help me govern. You can help me win. You can help me in some of the Midwestern states like Pennsylvania and Michigan and so on,’” Vance said Trump told him.
NBC News reported that two of the leading Republican candidates for vice president, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, were previously informed that they would not be selected for the position.
The Biden campaign immediately criticized the choice, accusing Trump of selecting Vance because he “will do everything in his power to enable Trump and his extremist agenda, even if it means breaking the law and regardless of the harm that may be done to the American people.”
“Billionaires and corporations are literally rooting for J.D. Vance: They know he and Trump will cut taxes for them and dramatically raise prices for everyone else,” Biden-Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, look at his vice presidential nomination on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Anna Mooney Macker | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Harris had previously accepted an invitation from CBS News to participate in a vice presidential debate on either July 23 or August 13.
After Trump announced his pick, Harris left Vance a message congratulating him and welcoming him to the race, a source familiar with the call told NBC.
Shortly after Vance was announced as Trump's running mate, the senator's wife, Osha Vance, resigned from Munger, Toles & Olson, the law firm where she had worked as an attorney.
“Usha has informed us that she has decided to leave the company,” according to a statement from the company shared with CNBC. “Usha was an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of service and wish her the best in her future career.”
(From left) J.D. Vance, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, shakes hands with former President Donald Trump during a rally hosted by the former president at the Delaware County Fair on April 23, 2022 in Delaware, Ohio.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Before entering politics, Vance criticized Trump, calling him a “complete fraud” and even comparing him and his “Make America Great Again” political movement to a noxious drug.
“Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein,” Vance wrote in The Atlantic before Trump’s 2016 election victory.
But as a politician, Vance has become one of the most loyal and extreme supporters of both Trump and his brand of nationalist, populist politics.
In his interview with Hannity, Vance said he was not trying to “hide” his past criticism of Trump.
“I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016,” Vance told Hannity. “But President Trump has been a great president, and he’s changed my mind. I think he’s changed the minds of a lot of Americans, because again, he’s delivered peace and prosperity.”
This photo collage shows, from left, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
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In recent months, Vance has been quick to show his new pro-Trump stance.
He was among a parade of Republicans who showed up outside Trump's criminal trial in New York City to denounce the impeachment of the GOP leader.
He later claimed that the trial was “election interference” and that its “main purpose” was “psychological torture” against Trump. A jury in that trial convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records; Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced on September 18.
After Trump survived a horrific assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, Vance baselessly blamed the Biden campaign for the attack.
“The core idea of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote hours after the shooting. “This rhetoric directly led to the attempted assassination of President Trump.”
The attack, which left one rally participant dead and Trump slightly injured, sent shockwaves across the country and drew condemnation of the violence across the political spectrum.
Biden, in an Oval Office speech after the shooting at a Trump rally, urged Americans to lower the temperature of political discourse and reaffirm democratic norms of civil disagreement and decency.
As a senator, Vance opposed sending U.S. aid to Ukraine as it fought against invading Russian forces, and he repeatedly voted against legislation that would preserve or expand federal abortion rights.
Vance's announcement added to a busy day for Trump.
Earlier Monday morning, federal Judge Ellen Cannon dismissed the criminal case against the former president for illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing the government's efforts to recover them.
— CNBC's Josephine Roselle contributed to this report.
