Who is James David Vance, repentant anti-Trumpist and Donald Trump’s running mate?

The former Republican president is betting on Ohio senator JD Vance to accompany him. The parliamentarian could help him win several key states in the November presidential election.

Four months before the presidential election, the Republican tandem for the presidential election is now known. Donald Trump designated James David Vance as his vice-presidential candidate on Monday, July 15, at the Republican convention in Milwaukee. “What an honor to stand alongside President Donald Trump, he brought peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he will do it again.”commented the young senator from Ohio, aged 39, in a message published on the social network X.

If Donald Trump is elected president of the United States in November, this author The successful Ohio native would become the third-youngest vice president in the nation’s history. The nomination has sparked a backlash from the Democratic camp, including Vice President Kamala Harris on X: “JD Vance Supports Nationwide Abortion Ban”The Republican elected official is also being pushed around in his own camp, particularly for controversial statements and remarks made about Donald Trump in the past.

A newcomer in politics

Compared to other vice presidential contenders like Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, James David Vance has limited political experience. First elected in November 2022 as a Republican and with the support of Donald Trump, the Yale Law School graduate is a relative newcomer to the national arena.

Originally from Middletown, Ohio, this Marine veteran from a modest background rose to national prominence with the publication of his autobiography in 2016. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and a Culture in Crisis. The senator tells his story and the history of his family in an America marked by precariousness and drug addiction. The elected official “offers a compassionate and insightful sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped fuel the politics of rebellion, particularly the rise of Donald Trump”written in August 2016, in the columns of New York Timesjournalist Jennifer Senior. A bookstore success, the book entered the best-seller list of the 2017 New York Times and was adapted a few years later on the Netflix platform.

In 2016, he founded Our Ohio Renewal, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “resolve the identified problems” In his book, such as the fight against opioid addiction, he specifies the New York TimesIn 2021, the association closed its doors due to lack of resources. A year earlier, he launched a company aimed at financing start-ups located in disadvantaged cities, specifies the American public radio NRP.

Isolationist and supporter of a tough policy on immigration

A leading figure in the informal conservative movement known as the “New Right,” JD Vance is trying to give a more radical direction to Donald Trump’s isolationist and anti-immigration current. On foreign policy, the Ohio senator openly opposes Washington’s involvement in foreign conflicts and the military aid given by the United States to kyiv in its war against Russia, Politico analyzed in March.

The parliamentarian appears even more radical on other issues, such as abortion, where he has spoken out against exceptions to the bans, even in cases of rape or incest. “Unlike more conventional Republican partisans (…), JD Vance’s New Right cohort sees Donald Trump as just the first step in a broader populist-nationalist revolution that is already reshaping the American right.”assures Politico.

A former vocal critic of Donald Trump

In October 2016, a few weeks before the presidential election, JD Vance was the guest of CBS journalist Charlie Rose. Asked about his relationship with the Republican candidate, the writer explained that he felt no political affinity for the former real estate magnate. “I’m not a Trump supporter, I never liked him”. A Republican candidate for the Senate a few years later, old messages published by JD Vance, notably on Facebook, were exhumed by his former college roommate and current Democratic senator in the Georgia State Senate, MSNBC reported in April 2022. In one of these messages, JD Vance claims that the former president could be the“Hitler of America”.

Since then, the essayist has proven his loyalty to Donald Trump by defending tooth and nail his unfounded thesis of the stolen election in 2020 and his ideology. “Make America Great Again”Asked about this about-face by a journalist from the conservative American channel Fox News in June, the senator tried to make amends. “Look, I was wrong… He was a great president, and that’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.”he explained. On Saturday, just hours after the shootings targeting the former president, JD Vance accused Joe Biden on the social network X of having “directly caused this assassination attempt”, with his rhetoric about the dangers of Trumpism.

An electoral asset to conquer the “Rust Belt”

Invited to Fox News on Monday, the Ohio senator revealed to the presenter Sean Hannity the inside story of the phone call he received from Donald Trump offering him the position of vice president. “He just said to me, ‘Look, I think we need to save this country, and you’re the guy who can help me in the best way… You can help me win. You could help me in some of the Midwestern states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.'”reports the parliamentarian.

The running mate chosen by the former business tycoon therefore aims to appeal to the white middle and working class electorate of the “Rust Belt” (the rust belt). This group of deindustrialized states, which extends from the Great Lakes region to Pennsylvania, could swing the outcome of the presidential election on November 5. In 2020, Joe Biden managed to impose himself in several of these key states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, three territories now in Donald Trump’s sights.