Senator JD Vance of Ohio has been selected as Donald Trump’s running mate for the November US presidential election. Vance will become the Vice President of the United States if Trump wins.
“Senator JD Vance of the Great State of Ohio is the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States, after lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social on Monday, July 15.
On Wednesday, 39-year-old Vance is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention, which is now underway in Milwaukee. This is all the information you want on JD Vance, including his relationship with India.
Venture capitalist, Yale graduate, and Marine
Vance was raised in Middletown, Ohio, in a modest upbringing. Following his high school graduation, he joined the US Marines and participated in the Iraq War as a public relations officer and combat correspondent.
He completed his undergraduate studies in political science and philosophy at Ohio State University after serving in the armed forces. After that, he continued his legal studies at Yale Law School, where he served as the Yale Law Journal’s editor.
He briefly practiced law after earning his Yale degree in 2013 before relocating to San Francisco to work as a venture investor in the tech sector. Interestingly, he was employed at Mithril Capital, co-founded by PayPal’s Peter Thiel.
Best-selling novelist and outspoken opponent of Trump
With the release of his best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy in 2016, Vance became well-known. Many interpreted Vance’s autobiographical Hillbilly Elegy, published in the same year that Trump stormed to power for the first time, as a window into rural, often-forgotten America, which fueled Trump’s ascent.
Vance’s book was described as “a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump” in a review that appeared in The New York Times. In 2020, a full-length movie based on the novel was published.
Vance was adamantly opposed to Trump in 2016. In October 2016, he said to talk show host Charlie Rose, “I’m a Never Trump guy.” In July 2016, Vance penned an opinion piece for The Atlantic titled, “Trump is cultural heroine… Trump’s pledges are the needle in the collective American vein. He temporarily lifts some people’s spirits. However, he cannot cure their problems, and they will eventually realize this.
“I go back and forth between thinking that Trump is America’s Hitler or that he is a cynical asshole like [Richard] Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful),” Vance said in a 2016 private Facebook conversation to a friend.
“Never Trump,” ardent supporters
But Vance’s views on Trump evolved over time. According to reports, he supported Trump in 2020 and used his support to win his first Senate election in 2022.
Following his appointment as Trump’s running mate, The New York Times stated that Vance had “explained his ideological shifts as a result of a double intellectual awakening: [For Vance] It turned out that Donald Trump wasn’t as bad as Vance had thought, and that American liberals were much worse.”
“I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, and on immigration,” Vance said in a June interview with The New York Times.
As one of the most tenacious supporters of Trump in the modern era, Vance shares many of the former president’s viewpoints. Furthermore, according to Politico, he has become “the standard-bearer of the ‘New Right,’ a loose movement of young conservatives trying to push the Republican Party in a more populist, nationalist, and culturally conservative direction.”
A fascinating choice
Vance “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,” according to a post made by Trump on Truth Social. In November’s election, a number of these Midwestern states most likely will be crucial.
Experts predict that selecting Vance will energize Trump’s ardent supporters. After all, the senator has developed into one of the most well-liked figures in conservative media in recent years, and the Republican base adores him for his candor. Vance’s choice is probably going to be warmly received in Silicon Valley, where Trump hopes to secure campaign funding. One of the wealthiest contributors to Vance is billionaire Thiel.
But the choice also means that the Republican ticket will now be led by two white males. According to Reuters, Vance, a devout conservative from a Republican state, “is unlikely to bring many new voters into Trump’s corner and may even alienate some moderates.” Supporters of Trump wanted him to choose a woman of color in order to broaden the coalition’s base of influence.
By the way, Vance met Indian-origin lawyer Usha Chilukuri while he was a Yale student, and the two are married. Three kids are raised by the couple. While her spouse is Catholic, Chilukuri is a Hindu.
