MILWAUKEE — The Republican National Convention officially nominated JD Vance as the party’s candidate for vice president.
In a brief proceeding, delegates “overwhelmingly” crowned Vance (R-Ohio), 39, as the Republican pick for vice president Monday, hours after officially designating former President Donald Trump as the party’s presidential standard bearer.
Businessman Bernie Moreno, whom Vance backed in the GOP primary for Ohio Senate in the 2024 cycle, made the motion to nominate him for VP.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance takes the stage after he was tapped as Donald Trump’s running mate for 2024. AFP via Getty Images“He’s a great Patriot. He loves Ohio,” Moreno proclaimed during the ceremony. Trump, 78, announced the pick on Truth Social just before the official procedings at the RNC.
“JD has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump further lauded Vance’s academic and venture capitalist record, while suggesting he’d be a true champion of the people.
Vance was all smiles as he walked onto the crowded and energetic RNC floor at the Fiserv Forum flanked by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance.
He shook hands with members of the Ohio delegation, including Gov. Mike DeWine as he made his way to the floor to observe his nomination becoming official. The crowd quickly burst out with excitement seeing him enter the arena, showering Vance with cheers.
Who is Trump's VP pick, JD Vance?
- Trump announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his pick for vice president.
- The 39-year-old rose to prominence after writing his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” reflecting on his time growing up in a working-class Ohio family.
- Vance would be the second-youngest vice president to ever assume office if Trump was elected for another term.
- In 2020, Vance apologized to Trump for his previous criticism and came to be a supporter. He deleted his previous critical posts of Trump and met with the then-president about his Senate run.
- President Biden dismissed Vance as “a clone of Trump on the issues” following the announcement.
- He was first elected to the Senate in the 2022 midterm cycle.
Vance had once been a fierce critic of Trump, once likening the real estate mogul to “cultural heroin” during the 2016 election cycle and wondering if he was “America’s Hitler.”
But since 2018, Vance has emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest defenders and a darling among the MAGA faithful.
The former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., had both publicly and privately pushed for his father to select Vance, with whom he shares a kinship.
Vance is known for his populist brand of Republican politics. He was first elected to the Senate in the 2022 midterm cycle.
If Trump and Vance succeed in winning the Nov. 5 presidential election, the bearded Ohio senator could make history as the first vice president with significant facial hair since Charles Curtis, who served between 1929 and 1933.
The freshman senator could also become one of the youngest vice presidents in US history, a record held by John Breckinridge, who began at the age of 36. Vance is 39 but turns 40 in August.
Vance would be the third-youngest VP in history if he wins, behind Breckinridge and Richard Nixon.
Both Trump and Vance are expected to address the RNC later this week.
