Trump Officially Nominated – Competes With J.D. Vance as Runner-Up in US Election

Donald Trump will run for president with J.D. Vance as his running mate. The pair were formally nominated at the Republican National Convention. Vance was once considered a Trump critic, before switching sides.

Donald Trump is heading into the November U.S. presidential election with J.D. Vance at his side. The Ohio senator is Trump's running mate, as announced on the former president's online platform Truth Social during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Former US President and current presidential candidate Trump wrote that Vance, 39, is the perfect fit. On the campaign trail, Vance will focus on workers and farmers in key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and more. Trump and Vance have been officially named the Grand Old Party's presidential couple for the four-day main event.

Trump's spokesman in Munich Security conference

Vance once celebrated his success as a writer in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” In it, he describes a childhood of poverty. Vance worked his way up the ranks, attending elite Yale University and eventually becoming a financial executive. Vance, who had been a vocal opponent of Trump and sometimes insulted him, also switched to the Trump camp in 2018.

Today, the 39-year-old author sits in the Senate for Ohio. At the Munich Security Conference in February, he served as Trump’s spokesman, calling on Germany to invest more in its armed forces, above all. However, he may not be well known to the general public in the United States.

Trump unleashed speculation about vice presidents

Trump has been speculating for months about who he will bring on as his running mate. In modern U.S. history, the name has typically been announced shortly before a nominating convention. Trump did not publicly announce his decision until the convention was already underway. This is somewhat unconventional.

In the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump relied on Mike Pence, who was expected to do particularly well with religious voters. After Trump won the election, Pence stood loyally behind his boss for four years. The rift between the two only came when Pence refused to torpedo the official certification of the election results in Congress after Trump lost the election to Biden in 2020, thereby illegally helping his boss win. Pence briefly ran as the Republican presidential candidate, but dropped out early in the race.

Biden campaign team attacks Vance

Trump and Vance are currently challenging incumbent President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Their formal nomination by the Democrats is still pending.

The Biden campaign immediately attacked the newly appointed Republican vice presidential nominee. The Biden campaign said Vance would implement Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s extreme political agenda “without regard to the harm to the American people.” Vance is anti-abortion and wants to cut taxes for billionaires while raising prices for everyone else.

Focus specifically on running fellow candidates.

The vice presidency is not an easy job in general. The job of the vice president is to praise and represent the president’s policies, while at the same time setting his own tone without stealing the president’s attention, making no mistakes, but without shining too brightly. Trump in particular does not like to share fame and attention with others.

This election year, the focus is more than ever on the vice presidential candidate. The two presidential rivals, Trump and Biden, are both very old. Trump is 78, Biden is 81, and will be 82 at the start of his second term. According to the U.S. Constitution, the vice president would assume the highest office in the state if the president dies or fails.