Former President Donald Trump announced Monday that Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will be his running mate for the 2024 presidential election.
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
In the post, Trump lists some of Vance’s achievements, including the senator’s time in the Marine Corps, his educational background from Ohio State University and Yale Law School, as well as how Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy “became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country.”
“J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, 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,” Trump wrote in the post.
Vance defeated then-Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan during the 2022 election cycle after, as my colleague Tristan Justice reported, receiving an “11th-hour endorsement” from Trump that April. The endorsement helped bump Vance’s spot in the Republican primary “from a distant third” to first, Justice reported, citing RealClearPolitics.
Ohio is traditionally a bellwether state with no president carrying the Electoral College since 1960 without winning Ohio, though Trump notably lost the Electoral College in 2020 despite winning the state for a second time.
In a recent op-ed for The Federalist, Turning Point USA Founder and CEO Charlie Kirk argued in favor of choosing Vance as Trump’s running mate, saying he is the “single best brain in the entire U.S. Congress for grasping what must be done to complete the Trump realignment on the border, on foreign policy, and on draining the swamp.”
“Vance brings other bonuses,” Kirk continued. “He is the VP contender with the closest ties to the state that right now seems to have the best odds of deciding the election. … The rural voters of Pennsylvania are much like the rural voters of Ohio who elected Vance.”
Other candidates who were considered for the role of running mate included Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Trump’s announcement comes just two days after he survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.
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