On Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump announced Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), a fellow Republican lawyer, as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election. Vance’s working-class background, which he famously wrote about in his award-winning memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," reinforces Republicans as the party who fights for hard-working families, now, and long into the future.
"President Trump's selection of Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate strengthens our party in this critical election year and beyond,” said Marc Ellinger, Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) Chair. “Vance's working-class background and service in the United States Marine Corps will bolster Republicans' identity as the party that will fight for America's hard-working families who have suffered under Biden's devastating inflation.
“As the first millennial nominated to a major-party ticket, Vance will help ensure that President Trump's legacy will reach beyond a second term in office," Ellinger concluded.
“RNLA is pleased President Trump has selected as his running mate a conservative leader from the heart of the country who has demonstrated in his time in the Senate that he will fight for working class Americans,” said RNLA Co-Chair Tricia Paoletta.
Vance, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2022 midterm elections after defeating incumbent Democrat Tim Ryan, is an Iraq war veteran and graduate of Yale Law School, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association.
“Adding Sen. Vance to the ticket is reminiscent of the Reagan Revolution,” added RNLA President and Executive Director Michael Thielen. “It further broadens the party’s appeal to blue collar workers, just as Reagan did. And when Vance shares stories from his youth about struggles and deprivations, his stories, unlike many of Joe Biden’s, have the added advantage of being true!”
When Vance announced his campaign for the Ohio Senate seat, he told the Dayton Daily News that politicians need to address the “terrible” energy crisis that’s raising prices across the board and the open southern borders that are allowing illegal weapons and drugs to enter the country. He was elected after receiving Trump’s endorsement and has largely remained focused on those issues while in office.
Following Trump’s announcement, The Daily Caller posted a montage video with some of Vance’s “most viral moments.
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 15, 2024
“You can believe in a border without being a racist; you can believe in the country without being a racist,” Vance said in a candidate debate.
In a memorable moment on the Senate floor, Vance remarked , “I think it takes a special amount of gall to be from Joe Biden's political party and to complain about the fentanyl crisis that is ravaging not just Ohio but the entire country because it is Joe Biden's border policies that have invited this fentanyl into our country at record levels.”
In a testy exchange with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Vance got the upperhand.
Blitzer: “Are you interested in being a running mate of a convicted felon?”
Vance: “We'll find out the entire purpose of this trial was to allow the media and the Democrats to say exactly that. It's never about justice. This is about plastering, ‘convicted felon’ all over the airwaves, when in reality, the only thing that Donald Trump is guilty of is being in the courtroom of a political sham trial. You cannot say that this trial was anything more than politics masquerading as justice and yes, I will help. I will help Donald Trump, however I think that I can.”
In a move that surprised no one, President Biden was quick to attack the new Trump ticket on X within minutes of the public announcement of Vance as the Republican’s vice presidential nominee. Daily Caller’s White House correspondent Reese Reagan noted, “It took President Biden less time to tweet a response to Trump’s VP pick than it did for him to condemn the assassination attempt on the former president.”
It took President Biden less time to tweet a response to Trump’s VP pick than it did for him to condemn the assassination attempt on the former president. @DailyCaller https://t.co/hB9fTcs34R
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) July 15, 2024
Vance was formally nominated by a voice vote on the floor of the Republican National Convention within hours of President Trump’s announcement of his addition to the ticket.
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