Former US president Donald Trump has selected Ohio Sen. J.D. Johnson as his 2024 vice presidential candidate. Trump announced on Truth Social on Monday, drawing attention to the staunch ally and one-time critic of the former president.
How has Vance criticized Trump for in the past?
Vance said he did not vote for the former president in the 2016 election, and a former roommate reported that Vance had messaged him saying Trump was "cynical" and could become "the American Hitler," according to the Associated Press.
In October 2016, Vance tweeted that Trump was "reprehensible". He said the then-presidential candidate “makes people I care about afraid" and criticized his anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric. Vance also hinted at believing a woman's sexual harassment allegations against Trump on MSNBC in 2016, saying, "It's like 'he said/she said,' right?" At the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth? Just kidding. Or do you believe the women who were on tape?"
However, Vance changed his mind in 2021, saying he regretted his past comments about Trump, which earned him the former president's endorsement. When President Trump endorsed Vance for the 2022 campaign, he acknowledged his criticism of the candidate, saying, “Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades.”
What was 'Hillbilly Elegy' about?
"Hillbilly Elegy" is an examination of low-income, white, working-class culture through Vance's own experiences as a child living in poverty and his observations of those around him participating in the welfare system, and became famous during President Trump's political rise.
Early in the book, he explains that he identifies with “the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree” and to whom poverty is “the family tradition". He states that he viewed wealthy white people as people to be feared.
The memoir includes many autobiographical details about Vance and his family's time growing up in the Appalachian Mountains and the Rust Belt. These include his mother and grandfather struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, respectively, and that his grandmother once set his grandfather on fire because of his drinking, but he survived and the couple stayed together.
Speaking to NPR in 2016, Vance said the book is about “the lives of real people when the industrial economy goes south". The book was made into a Netflix film in 2020.
Chief critic
After President Trump announced Vance as his running mate, Biden-Harris 2024 Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon released a statement criticizing Vance's past support for a national abortion ban, his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and his stance on 2020 policy and election results. Vance has also been criticized by Democrats for his opposition to same-sex marriage, his views on immigration, and his criticism of divorce.
In 2022, the Ohio Democratic Party said in a statement that Vance is “is too dangerous to be in the U.S. Senate,” at least in part because he "doesn't trust women to make decisions about their own bodies". The comments followed Vance's suggestion that people in abusive marriages shouldn't divorce for the sake of their children, according to Vice, but Vance's team said his comments were taken out of context. (Having previously supported a nationwide abortion ban, Vance recently said he supports access to the abortion drug mifepristone.)
He also said he would not support federal legislation protecting same-sex and interracial marriages in 2022, calling it "bizarre and distracting from other topics," the Columbus Dispatch reported. Vance also said he would not have certified the results of the 2020 election if he were in then-vice president Mike Pence's position, according to ABC News.
Key background
Vance has previously acknowledged that he is one of Trump's favourites to be vice presidential nominees, saying in late June that he would be "a little disappointed" if he didn't get the job, but that Trump's team is likely "considering a lot of other people as well."
In addition to Vance, Trump was reportedly considering Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, according to The New York Times. Trump has said in the past that he wants a vice president with experience and a level-headed demeanour. Trump also told Fox News last week that his campaign is waiting to see how the backlash to Biden's performance in the debates affects the race before announcing a running mate.
What to watch out for
If Trump and Vance win the White House, his Senate vacancy could give Democrats a chance to flip his seat in the next general election.
