Who is JD Vance? Things to know about Donald Trump's pick for US vice president

Former US president Donald Trump chose Senator James David Vance of Ohio to be his running mate on Monday (Jul 15), picking a one-time critic who has become a loyal ally.

The 39-year-old is the first millennial to join a major-party ticket at a time of deep concern about the advanced age of America’s political leaders.

Vance's nomination takes place at an extraordinary moment in US history.

An attempted assassination of Trump at a rally on Jul 13 has shaken the campaign, bringing new attention to the nation's coarse political rhetoric.

Trump hopes to have found something of a "mini-me" in Vance, reported CNA correspondent Simon Marks from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. 

"Donald Trump really confirmed today what we all knew, that he was turning to a man who is bringing to the ticket everything that Mike Pence did not bring to the ticket in 2016," he said. 

Here are some things to know about Trump's running mate: 

HILLBILLY ELEGY

Vance's pre-Washington life story - from humble beginnings in a fatherless Rust Belt home to military service, an Ivy League education at Yale Law School and a Silicon Valley career - is the kind of rags-to-riches parable that delights conservatives.

The Trump campaign believes Vance's "hardscrabble roots" will be relatable to working-class Americans in many of the battleground states where this election is going to be ultimately fought and won or lost, said Marks. 

Vance made a name for himself with his memoir, the 2016 bestseller Hillbilly Elegy, which was published as Trump was first running for president.

The book about his roots in rural Kentucky and blue-collar Ohio made him a national celebrity and became a cultural talking point after Trump's victory that November.

Hillbilly Elegy reflects on the transformation of Appalachia from reliably Democratic to reliably Republican, sharing stories about his chaotic family life and about communities that had declined and seemed to lose hope. 

“I was very bugged by this question of why there weren’t more kids like me at places like Yale ... why isn’t there more upward mobility in the United States?” Vance told The Associated Press in 2016.

The book earned Vance a reputation as someone who could help explain the maverick New York businessman’s appeal in middle America, especially among the working class and rural white voters who helped Trump win the presidency.

It also introduced Vance to the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr loved the book and knew of Vance when he went to launch his political career. The two hit it off and have remained friends.

Vance was elected to the Senate in 2022 and has become one of the staunchest champions of the former president's "Make America Great Again" agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy and immigration.

Sales for Hillbilly Elegy now total at least 1.6 million copies, according to Circana, which tracks around 85 per cent of hardcover and paperback sales. In 2020, the book was adapted into a movie of the same name, earning Glenn Close an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

YOUTH, CHEMISTRY 

Vance represents a younger generation in an election that features Trump, 78, and Joe Biden, 81, bringing a counterweight to the Democratic ticket that also includes Vice President Kamala Harris, 59.

"I think it shows that our party is not only unified, but that the Republican Party is embracing youth," New York's Representative Anthony D'Esposito told CNA at the Republican National Convention.

Idaho Senator Tammy Nichols also believes Vance would be an asset for the campaign.

"He brings a lot of energy. He's young, he's military. He has a lot of great things that he's done for his state and so I think he's going to pull in a lot of the needed votes for Trump," she said. 

Vance also has another advantage: His chemistry with Trump.

Personal relationships are extremely important to the former president – he and Vance have developed a strong rapport, speaking on the phone regularly.

Trump has also complimented Vance’s looks, saying he reminded him of "a young Abraham Lincoln".

"NEVER TRUMP" TO LOYAL ALLY

Vance was a "never Trump" Republican in 2016, calling him "dangerous" and "unfit" for office.

He also previously called the billionaire an "idiot", "noxious" and "reprehensible", according to extensive reports, while expressing worry that he might be "America's Hitler".

But by the time Vance met Trump in 2021, he had reversed his opinion, citing Trump’s accomplishments as president. Both men downplayed Vance's past scathing criticism.

Once elected, Vance became a fierce Trump ally on Capitol Hill, unceasingly defending Trump’s policies and behaviour.

He was also one of Trump's most ardent advocates, particularly over his numerous struggles in criminal and civil court.

"The Biden administration wants Trump to die in jail and they want to bankrupt his family. It is the biggest assault on democracy we've ever seen," he said in a March post on X.

"If you're too cowardly to call it out, you're not ready for this moment in American politics."

In his first communication with supporters after his nomination on Monday, Vance put a fundraising email out and said in a message directed at Trump: "During your time in office, America was at its best.

"Our economy was roaring, our border was under control, our cities were safe and we were respected overseas. As your vice president, I will faithfully serve by your side and make our country great again."

CONSERVATIVE VOICE

Once an affable, bookish type, Vance has since become the kind of warrior on the Sunday morning TV circuit that Trump appreciates, lobbing verbal grenades against opponents and generally slinging mud on his mentor's behalf.

His evolution mirrored a broader realignment within the conservative movement, as Trump tightened his grip on the party, allowing little dissent from critics and ending the careers of Republicans who criticised him in public.

Perfectly aligned with Trump's America First movement on issues like immigration reform, economic protectionism and cultural conservatism, Vance has adopted the ex-president's confrontational style.

But he appears further to the right on many issues including abortion, where he embraces calls for federal legislation and has argued against the need for rape and incest exceptions to bans.

Politico suggested in a 7,000-word profile in March that Vance had become the figurehead of what it called "the New Right" - young conservatives trying to take Trump's isolationist, anti-immigration America First movement in a more radical direction.

"Unlike Trump's more conventional Republican followers, Vance's New Right cohort see Trump as merely the first step in a broader populist-nationalist revolution that is already reshaping the American right," it said.

"And, if they get their way, that will soon reshape America as a whole."

Biden on Monday dismissed Vance as a Trump "clone".

"I don't see any difference," Biden told reporters before flying to Nevada when asked about the Ohio senator.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called Vance a leading voice for the conservative movement on key issues including a shift away from interventionist foreign policy, free market economics and "American culture writ large".

On the 2020 election, he said he wouldn't have certified the results immediately if he had been vice president and that Trump had "a very legitimate grievance".

A litany of government and outside investigations have not found any election fraud that could have swung the outcome of Trump's 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

"Donald Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on Jan 6: Bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

In the Senate, Vance sometimes embraces bipartisanship. He and Democratic Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown co-sponsored a railway safety Bill following a fiery train derailment in the Ohio village of East Palestine.

He has sponsored legislation extending and increasing funding for Great Lakes restoration and supported bipartisan legislation boosting workers and families.