JD Vance did a total backflip on Trump. Now he's the vice presidential nominee
By Nick Pearson
12:32pm Jul 16, 2024
In 2016, JD Vance was horrified by the rise of Donald Trump in the Republican party.
At the time Vance was a San Francisco venture capitalist promoting his memoir about growing up in suburban Ohio.
"I'm a 'Never Trump' guy," he said during a TV interview. "I never liked him."
His comments in private were even more damning.
"I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical hole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler," he wrote in a message to a former roommate.
But Vance has changed his tune dramatically, becoming one of Trump's most vocal backers in Washington.
So it wasn't a surprise when Vance was named as the Republican vice presidential nominee.
So who is JD Vance, and how will his selection impact the election?
Who is JD Vance?
James David Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, a childhood well-documented by his memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
Vance was raised by his grandparents as his mother battled drug addiction.
JD Vance served in the Marine Corps in the public affairs unit. (US Marine Corps)
He enlisted in the Marine Corps, and served in Iraq in the public affairs office as a combat correspondent.
After that, he went to Yale Law School, serving as editor of the Yale Law Journal.
He then moved to San Francisco, working as a venture capitalist for PayPal founder Peter Thiel.
Then after the success of his memoir, he moved back to Ohio in 2016.
Vance spent much of his adult life as an atheist before converting to Catholicism in 2020.
He has three children with his wife Usha.
In 2022 he was elected to the Senate, his first job in professional politics. He was sworn into office in January last year.
At just 39, Vance would be the youngest vice president ever elected, as well as the first Millennial on a presidential ballot.
He will be the first vice presidential candidate with a full beard since Allen G Thurman in 1888.
Why did Trump choose JD Vance?
Vance has always been top of the Republican shortlist for vice president.
Despite a lack of experience, Vance is a proven media performer, making regular appearances on cable news as a vociferous defender of the former president.
Vance's previous comments about Trump are hardly unusual. Also on his shortlist was Marco Rubio, who in 2016 had made inferences about Trump based on his small hands.
Vance's selection is a strong indication of how the Republican party has been remoulded to suit Trump.
While the Republican establishment was horrified by Trump in 2016, those who remain in powerful positions have since learned to embrace him.
What does JD Vance believe?
Vance has been unafraid to offend those he views as sharing a different worldview to him.
He has especially taken aim at people, especially women, who do not have children.
"We are effectively run in the country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too," he said in 2021.
He named Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pete Buttigieg as people "who don't have a direct stake" in the future of the country because they were childless.
Vance has previously stated that abortion should be a crime even in cases of rape and incest.
He has also been one of the Senate's most vocal opponents on sending aid to Ukraine, instead pushing to a settlement with Russia.
Vance however is a hardliner on China, pushing for more military aid to Taiwan.
Will JD Vance help Trump get elected?
On paper, Vance does not offer much to the ticket.
Vance has fashioned himself as an economic populist and a social conservative, and voters who like that would be opting for Trump anyway.
There is also the potential that Vance will alienate moderates with his conservative views and his unapologetic attitude.
He also comes from Ohio, which is no longer a swing state. His winning margin in 2022 was also less than Trump's in that state in 2020.
But what he does bring is an attack-dog energy that Trump likes. He is good on TV and on stage, but in a way that doesn't overshadow Trump.
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