And what J.D. Vance has said about Trump in the past.
Former President Trump finally ended all the speculation and announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, he said the Republican is “the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States.”
At 39, Vance contrasts youthfully with Trump, 78, and President Biden, 81. If the former president wins another term, the Ohio lawmaker will become history’s third youngest vice president (behind John Breckinridge and Richard Nixon).
Now that Vance has been capitulated into the national spotlight, here’s what you should know about the senator.
J.D. Vance’s political and military background
First elected in 2021, Vance is currently serving his first term as senator, but he doesn’t have a political background.
After graduating high school, Vance joined the Marines and served in Iraq before later earning degrees from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He also worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley before entering politics.
J.D. Vance’s wife and kids
Vance married his wife, Usha Vance, in 2014. The pair first met at Yale Law School, and she has played a vital role in his political career ever since. She reportedly helped Vance with his breakout memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, by assisting him organize his ideas about the social decline in rural white America.
As the daughter of Indian immigrants, Usha has some impressive credentials: She previously clerked for conservative Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was still on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. However, she wasn’t always associated with conservativism — according to The New York Times, she was a registered Democrat until at least 2014.
She went on to become a corporate litigator at a prestigious law firm in San Francisco, but she resigned to focus on her family. The couple shares three children: Ewan, 6, Vivek, 4, and Mirabel, 2.
While Vance said he’d be disappointed if he didn’t become Trump’s running mate, Usha said she’d be “open” to whatever happens. “I’m not raring to change anything about our lives right now,” she told Fox & Friends in June.
He said he was a “Never Trump guy”
Vance made a complete about-face on Trump over the span of just eight years. In 2016, Vance described himself as a “Never Trump guy” and publicly dismissed the president as “an idiot.” Privately, the Ohio Republican reportedly referred to him as “America’s Hitler.”
However, Vance started to change his tune after President Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. In an interview with Fox News at the time, he praised Trump’s time in office and apologized for attacking him.
Vance eventually scored Trump’s endorsement for a Senate run in 2022 and won the race by six points over Democrat Tim Ryan. “He’s the guy that said some bad shit about me,” Trump said of Vance at the time. “If I went by that standard, I don’t think I would have ever endorsed anybody in the country.”
In addition to pledging his loyalty to Trump, Vance’s friendship with the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., may have given him a leg up. Trump Jr. was a fan of Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, and knew of him when he launched his political career. The unlikely pair met, hit it off, and have remained fast friends ever since.
What are J.D. Vance’s positions on critical issues?
Vance is emblematic of a new strain of conservative ideology championed by Trump.
So what does that mean, exactly? Many of his views dovetail with Trump’s — for instance, he supports trade tariffs and opposes U.S. intervention in foreign conflicts, especially the war between Russia and Ukraine. He also spoke out against potential cuts to Social Security.
On the other end of the spectrum, Vance opposes abortion and has said the government should find ways to encourage people to have more children. But like most of his Republican counterparts, he changed his message on how he talks about the issue after Ohio and other states voted in favor of abortion access during last year’s midterm elections. In an interview with CNN in December, he said Republicans must “accept that people do not want blanket abortion bans.”
Perhaps even more consequential is his denial of the 2020 election results. He also hasn’t totally committed to accepting this year’s election results, instead responding conditionally: “If we have a free and fair election, I will accept the results,” he said on CNN in May.
What will happen to his Senate seat?
If Vance is elected vice president, his promotion to the White House would leave Ohio without one of its senators. In this scenario, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine would select his immediate replacement in the Senate, and they would face a special election in November 2026 to vote on who will finish out his term, which ends in 2028.
So far, DeWine reportedly has yet to decide on Vance’s replacement. But a couple of names are being floated, including Ohio Republican Chair Jane Timken. Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for the 2024 Republican nomination, has also expressed interest.
“I think J.D. is gonna be a great vice president,” Ramaswamy told CNN. “If asked to serve in that role, if J.D. is indeed the vice president — we’re going a couple steps ahead here, we don’t know who the vice president is yet…I would strongly consider it.”
J.D. Vance’s book
Vance first made a name for himself in 2016 when he published his best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memory of Family and Culture in Crisis, which centers around his childhood growing up in poverty in Ohio, contrasted with his time struggling to fit in at Yale Law School. As detailed in his book, his mother also struggled with drug addiction, so he spent many of his early years with his grandmother.
The Hillbilly Elegy movie
After his book found unexpected commercial success, it was turned into a Netflix film starring Gabriel Basso as Vance. Amy Adams played his mother, and Glenn Close famously played his tough but nurturing grandma. Ron Howard directed the film, which got very mixed reviews. Close received Supporting Actress nominations at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Adams’s performance was also recognized by the Screen Actors Guild, with a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress. Aside from praise for the lead actresses, the critical response was largely negative. Some outlets criticized it for “perpetuating stereotypes about the poor.”
After the film’s release, Vance moved back to Ohio, where he began planning his political run.
