Trump picks J.D. Vance as running mate, Biden kicks 

 

Donald Trump, on Monday, announced Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate in the 2024 presidential election.

This is as the former president received enough convention delegate votes to become the Republican presidential nominee.

But the Joe Biden campaign promptly dismissed Vance as a “far-right MAGA extremist.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that “after lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio.”

Vance, a 39-year-old who grew up in Kentucky and Ohio, rose to prominence in 2016 with his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy. He has served as Ohio’s junior U.S. senator since 2023.

Over recent weeks, Trump was reported to have narrowed his list of possible running mates to include Vance, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

The Republican National Convention, which got underway on Monday, is scheduled to run through Thursday.

Trump’s appearances at the Fiserv Forum arena will mark his first public events since he was rushed off the stage in Butler, Pa., after what authorities described as an attempt on his life.

In the wake of the attack over the weekend, security at the RNC has been scrutinized. The director of the Secret Service said on Monday that security plans have been “reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.”

What happens to J.D. Vance’s Senate seat if Trump wins?

If J.D. Vance is elected vice president, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, would get to select a replacement in the U.S. Senate.

That replacement would hold the seat until a special election in November 2026 to fill the Senate seat until the end of the term, which is 2028.

Vance was elected to the Senate in 2022 and took office in 2023.

After Vance was announced as Trump’s VP pick on Monday, DeWine told CNN: “It’s a great day for Ohio.”

Who is Usha Vance, wife of Trump’s vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance?

Hours after being named as Trump’s running mate on Monday, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio took the floor at the Republican National Convention, hand in hand with his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance.

Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants and grew up in a suburb of San Diego, according to the New York Times. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale and also has a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Cambridge.

Usha reportedly met J.D. in 2013, when they were both students at Yale Law School. There the couple organized a discussion group about social decline in rural white America, a topic that would become the focus of Vance’s memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was adapted into a film of the same title in 2020.

The couple has been married since 2014 and have three children. Until 2014, Usha was a registered Democrat, according to the Times.

From 2015 to 2017, Usha worked at California law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, then left to complete a number of clerkships, including for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

In 2019, she returned to Munger, Tolles & Olson, where she worked up until Monday’s announcement. A spokesperson for the firm told Bloomberg Law that Vance will step down from her position there.

Biden camp slams Trump’s running mate as extremist

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden’s campaign on Monday dismissed Donald Trump’s newly-unveiled running mate J.D. Vance as a “far-right MAGA extremist.”

“Vance is a 2020 election denier, supports a national abortion ban, and voted against IVF access,” Biden’s team said.

The president said Vance “talks a big game about working people. But now, he and Trump want to raise taxes on middle-class families while pushing more tax cuts for the rich.”