Donald Trump has selected US Senator J.D. Vance to serve as his vice presidential running mate as the Republican Party prepared to officially nominate Trump as its 2024 presidential candidate.
"As Vice President, JD will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump made the announcement at the start of the Republican National Convention, two days after he
.
The selection of James David Vance could increase the odds of Trump supporters turning out for the November 5 election as the Ohio native is deeply popular with the Republican candidate's base.
Trump is due to formally accept the party's nomination on Thursday to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
Earlier on Monday, Trump was handed a major legal victory when a federal judge dismissed one of his criminal prosecutions.
US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the prosecutor who
was unlawfully appointed to his role.
Who is J.D. Vance?
Combative and ultra-loyal, J.D. Vance's rise to Donald Trump's running mate this November completes a transformation for a 39-year-old senator now seen as the future face of the Republican party.
Born James Donald Bowman on August 2, 1984, in the steel-manufacturing hub of Middletown, Ohio, Vance worked as a clerk to a federal judge after graduating from prestigious Yale Law School.
He later transitioned from law into the world of technology investment, joining Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital in 2017.
He made his name with the 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a best-selling account of his Appalachian family and modest upbringing, which gave a voice to rural, working-class resentment in left-behind America.
Vance is aligned with Trump's position on issues like immigration reform, economic protectionism and cultural conservatism. Source: AP / Michael Conroy
Vance has been one of Trump's most effective attack dogs in Congress, opposing immigration, insistent on Christianity as a touchstone of public and private morality, and opposing support for
Perfectly aligned with Trump's America First movement on issues like economic protectionism and cultural conservatism, Vance has adopted the ex-president's confrontational style.
Vance wasn't always like this.
Once self-described as "a Never Trump guy," Vance previously called the billionaire an "idiot," "noxious" and "reprehensible," according to extensive reporting, while expressing worry that he might be "America's Hitler."
Vance later reinvented himself as a Trump supporter and ultimately won the ex-president's key endorsement in the 2022 Senate race.
In Congress, he has become one of Trump's most ardent advocates, particularly over his numerous struggles in criminal and civil court.
"The Biden administration wants Trump to die in jail and they want to bankrupt his family. It is the biggest assault on democracy we've ever seen," he said in a March post on X.
But he appears further to the right on many issues including abortion, where he embraces calls for federal legislation and has argued against need for rape and incest exceptions to bans.
