Milwaukee (Associated Press) J.D. Vance It should help. Donald Trump He will win the Midwest championship this fall.
But the Ohio Senator Trump’s Vice Presidential Candidate One thing became clear Monday: Vance, a 39-year-old Republican who has served in Congress for less than two years, is little known to many in his party, even in battleground states where Trump expects him to be a strong candidate.
Asked about Trump’s selection minutes after the announcement, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra responded bluntly: “We don’t know him.”
“If he’s from Ohio, he understands our state and other northern battleground states,” Hoekstra said on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention, “but we haven’t had a chance to see what he thinks yet.”
The Trump campaign has less than four months left to raise Vance’s profile in the state that matters most in the 2020 Democratic presidential race. Joe BidenAlready, Democratic and Republican political opponents are trying to fill the void, capitalizing on Vance’s lack of political experience, his nationalistic views and comments critical of Trump himself.
“I don’t know if he’ll help Trump in the race,” said veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, suggesting that Vance might be better positioned to help Trump get his agenda through Congress if given the chance. “He’s not even that well-known in Ohio. … This is not a campaign pick, this is a policy pick, this is a governance pick.”
Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump’s chief adviser during his time in the White House, had encouraged him to choose a different running mate in the weeks before the election was announced, privately believing that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin would do more to help Trump win.
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Vance, who quickly built a reputation as a MAGA firebrand in his short tenure in Congress, drew muted applause when he entered the packed convention hall for the first time as Trump’s running mate on Monday. Republican senators took selfies, shook hands and signed posters. The crowd grew more excited later in the evening when Vance greeted Trump, making his first public appearance as a candidate, as he entered the room wearing a bandage over his right ear, the injury sustained in Saturday’s assassination attempt.
Recent polls support the notion that most voters are unfamiliar with Vance.
Just 13% of registered voters said they had a favorable opinion of Vance, while 20% said they had an unfavorable opinion. CNN Poll In a survey conducted in late June, the majority of respondents said they had never heard of him or had no opinion about him.
Trump’s choice of running mate is perhaps the most important decision of the 2024 campaign. At 78, Vance is literally half Trump’s age and has the least political experience on a list of candidates that also includes Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Sensing an opportunity, Trump’s critics in both parties quickly attacked him.
“Almost anyone could have been on the nominee list given the other options, but Trump needed a candidate who looked, talked and thought like him. He needed a candidate who would be servile,” former New Hampshire Republican Party chair Jennifer Horn wrote on X. “J.D. Vance was the least experienced, least qualified, most servile, psychopathic and servile candidate on the list.”
But Trump made his own judgment based on different criteria.
Trump especially likes Vance’s performances, as he has become a regular on conservative media outlets on TV, and the way he looks, saying he reminds him of “a young Abraham Lincoln.”
Trump also hopes that Vance’s life experience growing up in Appalachia will help him appeal to Midwestern voters, a rare example of a leading Republican leader who has experienced poverty and addiction up close.
Vance also had another advantage: his compatibility with Trump. The first-term senator has cultivated strong rapport with Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and key MAGA figures during their recent rise in Republican politics.
Vance is an Ivy League-educated author, former Marine and businessman known for his aggressive questioning of Biden administration officials.
Biden’s campaign held a conference call on Monday to denounce the pick, focusing in particular on Biden’s poor record on abortion and the economy, as well as his support for Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Vance I said before He said he supported banning abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. I wouldn’t have voted Certify the results of the 2020 election, as former Vice President Mike Pence did over President Trump’s objections.
“I believe we will win this matchup whenever it is — and even twice on Sunday,” said Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. “Because Trump and Vance have an agenda that is focused on themselves and their wealthy donor friends, while President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting for the American people.”
One of Biden’s biggest strengths in the race against Vance may be something Vance previously said about Trump.
Early in Trump’s political career, Vance cast Trump He was described as a “total fraud,” a “moral disaster,” and an “American Hitler.”
“If you look back at what J.D. Vance said about Trump, and he said it about me, look at what he said about Trump,” Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday.
Vivek Ramaswami, who was once seen as a possible running mate for Trump, called Vance a “huge asset to the slate” and said his changing views on Trump could ultimately help him connect with swing voters.
“He’s also someone who can say, ‘Actually, I may not have voted for Donald Trump in 2016, but here’s why I totally support him today,'” Ramaswami said.
But for now, Vance’s inclusion on Trump’s roster remains a mystery to many voters and elected officials.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said Vance was one of the few vice presidential candidates he “had never actually met.”
“I don’t know much about him,” Kemp said.
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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Bill Barrow and Jill Colvin in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
