Former President Donald Trump announced on July 16, 2024, that he had selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate for the upcoming presidential election. Vance, a Marine veteran and former media relations officer for the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina, enlisted in the military directly out of high school and served until 2007.
Born to a working-class family in Middletown, Ohio, Vance's military career took him to Iraq for six months in late 2005. During his deployment, he interacted with local school children and experienced a pivotal moment when he gave an eraser to a boy who was thrilled by the simple gift. This experience helped shape Vance's perspective on life and his resolve to be a man who would smile when someone gave him an eraser.
Vance is the first post-9/11 veteran on a major party ticket and the first veteran since John McCain in 2008. He met his wife, Usha Vance, at Yale Law School where they both organized a discussion group on social decline in white America. Usha grew up in a San Diego suburb and served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology.
Despite her Democratic background, she voted for JD Vance in the 2022 Republican primary when he was running for Ohio Senate. The couple have two sons, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter named Mirabel. Usha clerked on the influential DC circuit for Brett Kavanaugh before joining the Supreme Court in 2018.
JD Vance's military background and personal experiences have shaped his political views. He is known for his memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy,' which provides insight into growing up poor in Appalachia. His connections to California, where he met his wife and both worked in San Francisco before moving to Ohio, have also been a topic of interest.
Mary Trump, former President Donald Trump's estranged niece, has warned that Vance will help usher in 'the end of women's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy' if the GOP wins back the White House. Vance has seemingly backtracked on his stance regarding abortion at the federal level and now supports allowing access to mifepristone, an abortion pill.
Despite these concerns, JD Vance's military background, personal experiences, and political views have earned him a place on the Republican ticket. His selection as Trump's running mate marks a significant moment in American politics.
