JD Vance selected as Donald Trump’s running mate; Trump officially nominated

Former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has chosen Sen. JD Vance as his running mate. the announcement was made moments before Florida put Trump over the threshold to secure the Republican nomination during the first day of the Republican National Convention.

Trump posted on Truth Social his choice as the roll was being called at the RNC.

Trump first told Fox News reporter Bret Baier that the decision would come Monday, according to Reuters. The comments were made during a phone call between Baier and the former president, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The shortlist for running mates was narrowed to Ohio Sen. JD Vance, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, then just to Vance and Burgum. Trump called the process “a highly sophisticated version of ‘The Apprentice,’” The Associated Press reported.

ABC News reported that Trump had held meetings with the three men prior to Saturday’s attempted assassination in Pennsylvania. All three had given convention organizers biographies and photos so they could prepare for the announcement.

Who is Trump’s running mate, JD Vance?

Sen. James David “JD” Vance is a freshman senator from Ohio. He was elected in 2022 at the age of 38 and sworn in on Jan. 3, 2023, according to his official Senate website.

Vance was “born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, a once flourishing American manufacturing town.”

Vance joined the Marines and served in the Iraq War. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Yale Law School.

Vance graduated in 2013 and clerked for Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. District Judge David Bunning before getting a job at Mithril Capital, Business Insider reported. He left the job in less than a year, moving from Silicon Valley back to Ohio, founding the non-profit, Our Ohio Renewal.

He called himself a “conservative outsider” during his campaign and not a “career politician, recycling cheap establishment talking points instead of focusing on the real problems.”

Business Insider said he “is a venture capitalist who formally entered politics in 2021.”

He went from speaking out against Trump to being endorsed by the former president in 2021. Vance said in 2024 he would vote for Trump.

Vance is married to Usha Chilukuri, who has clerked for two Supreme Court justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, The New York Times reported, and eventually worked for “a high profile law firm.”

He frequently appeared on Fox News, mostly on Tucker Carlson’s show, and on Steve Bannon’s podcast, Business Insider reported.

Was the announcement later than usual?

The selection has been later than normal but is not unheard of, the AP reported.

President Ronald Reagan selected his former primary challenger George H.W. Bush less than 24 hours before he accepted the party’s nomination.

Bush waited until the convention in 1988 to announce Dan Quayle as his running mate.

Typically, however, running mates are announced shortly before the opening of a convention.

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