I & I Editorial BoardFormer President Donald Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance might surprise you, but it shouldn’t. The 39-year-old first-term senator is a solid, smart pick who will not only bring youth, energy and vigor to the ticket, but also a wealth of hard life experience, highly unusual for someone so young.
Trump’s announcement gave the bare bones of why he selected Vance over the many others who vied to be his running mate:
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. J.D. honorably served our country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was editor of The Yale Law Journal, and president of the Yale Law Veterans Association.
All excellent qualifications.
But there is a lot more to Vance, whose life story would fill a book. Indeed, it already has: His memoir of his hardscrabble, troubled childhood in a single-parent household headed by a drug-addicted mother, “Hillbilly Elegy,” became a surprise best-seller in 2016, the same year Trump first won election.
While much of America didn’t know who Vance was, Trump did. Vance’s book, better than any other, explained why Trump had such a fanatic following in America’s rural and industrially ravaged heartland.
It was that book, and Vance’s own experience, that won him the backing of Trump for a 2022 run for an open U.S. Senate seat in Ohio. Vance won.
Now, with Trump’s announcement, Vance (born during the Reagan administration) becomes the first millennial to have a spot on a major-party presidential ticket. He’s part of a shift from the current political gerontocracy that rules Washington to a new generation of leaders who will inherit America’s most serious problems. Vance is in the vanguard.
Ironically, Vance started out as a “never-Trumper” in 2016, but found over the years that he and Trump saw eye-to-eye on many issues. Vance has since shown himself to be uniquely in tune with Trump on many key issues: abortion (let the states decide); illegal immigration (it’s dangerous and out of control); protecting children from grotesque sex reassignment surgery and so-called puberty blockers (Vance authored the Protect Children’s Innocence Act); “unaccountable” military and government aid to Ukraine; continued U.S. backing for its ally Israel; and advocacy for shifting foreign policy to focus on our growing rivalry with China while bolstering our allies across Asia.
Beyond policy, it doesn’t hurt that Vance’s Ohio has 17 electoral votes, and Vance will help Trump once again win that state and give him an electoral boost across the troubled Midwest, which Trump must win to be reelected.
Nor does it hurt that Vance, who worked as a venture capitalist with legendary Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, has an extensive understanding of finance and equally deep ties to high-tech political donors. Or that Vance worked as a combat reporter while serving as a Marine in Iraq.
For those who don’t know but who’ll soon see, Vance’s keen intelligence is plainly evident when he speaks. But he’s no wonk. He has no problem evincing sympathy and genuine, unfeigned concern for the plight of working people and those who suffer joblessness, poverty, and drug and alcohol abuse. He’s seen those things first-hand.
This is no small thing: In part, the Democrats’ visceral hatred for Trump comes from the very real fear they have of losing their reputation as the party of the working class. In fact, they’re mainly backed these days by the hyper-liberal Big Media, and funded by leftist billionaires and Big Labor, which constantly sells out its own members.
There’s one more very important political aspect to Vance’s selection: He’ll soon likely square off against current Vice President Kamala Harris in a debate. Who do you think will win that?
Meanwhile, whether Trump or Biden wins, they’ll have just four more years in the White House, so we’ll ask the inevitable question: Which vice presidential candidate would you rather see just a heartbeat away from the presidency? Looks like a pretty easy pick to us.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
I don’t know much about JD Vance – your article is helpful to enlighten me. A big question I have (and is a very hot button issue in this election) is Vance’s stand on abortion, I believe he has been a strong opponent. He and Trump will have to address this issue and have an answer that will swing the many people who support abortion to their team. And simply stating that the states will make this decision won’t fly. Can they do this?
Nowhere does in the Constitution is abortion mentioned (and life and the pursuit of happiness could conflict in this context).
If the general populace wants a decision on this then it needs to come from the people (ie Congress) not from the Supreme Court or even the President. To be a law it has to start there (thank you PBS before you rotted into a cesspool). That is not the job of the President. So by definition it has to start at the state level until it rises up significantly enough to be on Congress’ radar. Of course they are all chicken**** on both sides so it will take time but eventually it will sort out.
This is the best possible pick Trump could have made. I pray (and I do not do that very often) that Vance is our nominee in 2028
Master stroke? JD was a no-brainer. Of the final 4, he was the obvious choice to be Trump’s MAGA banner bearer to 2036.
All too often, obvious choices are “the road not taken”. Top ticket choices of Democrats in recent several election would be examples, but a lot of Trump’s selections to his cabinet were obvious non-choices too. JDV could be a valuable advisor, presidency is a team, not a person.
Concise and Cogent: I&I forwards the best arguments for Vance as Trump’s VP candidate.
Thanks for writing and publishing them!
(The last point-“Who do you want to see a heartbeat away…”-is staggeringly convincing).
JD appears to be a solid pick. Well done, Mr Trump!
Now, the platform statement both of you must say immediately, to win back millions and millions of votes, is to remove government entirely from the abortion issue. Not a government issue! No way, no how should government be involved.
Strategically, those who want their evangelical doctrines forced onto the rest of the nation, which is blatantly against our Freedom of Religion and is blatantly against the doctrine of Separation of Church and State, still retain their right not to have an abortion.
Besides, since the evangelicals’ support the Republican platform, would any evangelical cast a vote instead for the lefty, progressive Biden Democrats? Not a chance.
Gain back millions and millions and millions of votes previously lost on the abortion issue alone, and lose none of the evangelical votes simply by placing abortion decisions where they should be, as a private, moral and medical decision within each family.
That is the strategy to win in 2024, and to return to being compassionate and tolerant, which are other bedrock Republican characteristics.
Taking the federal government out of the abortion question is PRECISELY what the Dobbs decision accomplished. As other commenters have pointed out, the US Constitution makes no mention of abortion — or any other specific medical issue — and the Roe v. Wade decision over 50 years ago was tragically wrong and unconstitutional on its face.
The national government is not empowered to dictate to the individual states how they must act on any issue other than those carefully and specifically delineated in the Constitution. Abortion is obviously not one of those issues.
The unfettered extermination of unborn children is not exactly my idea of “compassionate and tolerant.” You may want to show a bit more gratitude that your own mother didn’t share your views.
Do I understand that you agree that government should not be involved in the abortion issue, the whole point of my comment, too; we seem to agree, but then you denigrate those not doing what you seem to want them to do, according to your personal definitions and your morals, regarding family planning?
And then there is the other VP who is mesmerized by yellow school busses and excited by Venn Diagrams.