MILWAUKEE (AP) — JD Vance Need to help Donald Trump Hit the Midwest this fall.
But soon after being announced as an Ohio senator Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick On Monday, one thing became clear: Vance, a 39-year-old Republican with less than two years in Congress, is not well-known among many in his party, even in the swing states Trump hopes to deliver.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra gave a blunt response to Trump minutes after he was elected: “We don’t know him.”
“If he’s from Ohio, he understands our state and other northern battlegrounds,” Hoekstra said, standing on the floor. Republican National Convention. “But we haven’t had a chance to take his measurements yet.”
Trump’s team now has less than four months to bolster Vance’s profile in states that the fall is critical to in his 2020 rematch against the Democratic president. Joe Biden. Already, political opponents — Democrats and Republicans alike — are working to fill the void by seizing on Vance’s lack of experience in government, his nationalist views and his critical views of Trump.
“I don’t know that he’s helping him in the campaign,” said senior Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who suggested that Vance might be better positioned to help Trump implement his agenda on Capitol Hill if given the chance. “He’s not even well-known in Ohio. … This is not a campaign election. This is a policy election, a governing election.
Kellyanne Conway, a Republican strategist who served as Trump’s chief adviser while in the White House, encouraged Trump to choose a different running mate in the weeks leading up to the announcement. Florida Sen. He personally believed that Marco Rubio or Virginia Gov. Glenn Young would further aid Trump’s victory.
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Vance, who quickly developed a reputation as a MAGA firebrand in her short time on Capitol Hill, received subdued applause when she entered the packed convention hall for the first time Monday as Trump’s running mate. The Republican senator posed for selfies, shook hands and signed posters. Later in the night, the crowd cheered as Trump entered the room with his right ear bandaged, injured in Saturday’s assassination attempt, for the ticket’s first public appearance.
A recent poll confirms that most voters don’t know Vance.
According to a CNN poll conducted in late June, just 13% of registered voters said they had an unfavorable opinion of Vance, compared to 20%. The majority said they had never heard of him or had no opinion.
Trump’s vice presidential pick is arguably the most important decision of his 2024 campaign. Vance, who is half Trump’s age at 78, is on a short list that includes Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Sensing an opportunity, Trump’s critics in both parties came after him.
“Almost any other choice would have widened the map for them, but Trump needed a candidate who looked like him, talked like him and thought like him. He needed a candidate,” wrote former New Hampshire Republican Party Chair Jennifer Horne in X. JD Vance, the least experienced on the list. , the least qualified, most submissive, psychopathic, addict candidate.”
But Trump made up his own mind based on a different set of criteria.
Trump particularly liked Vance’s performance on television, where he has become a fixture in the conservative media. The former president also likes Vance’s look, saying he reminds him of “a young Abraham Lincoln.”
Trump also hopes Vance can draw on his life story growing up in Appalachia to appeal to Midwestern voters. Vance experienced poverty and slavery up close, unusually among leading Republican officials.
Vance also had another advantage: his chemistry with Trump. Trump, a first-term senator, has developed strong relationships with his son Donald Trump Jr. and leading MAGA figures during his recent rise in Republican politics.
Vance is an Ivy League-educated writer, ex-Marine and entrepreneur. He is known for aggressive questioning of Biden administration officials.
Biden’s campaign held a conference call on Monday to condemn the choice, focusing specifically on abortion and the economy and his support for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Vance Said before He will support a national abortion ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy. He also said he would not have voted to certify the 2020 election results, as former Vice President Mike Pence did over Trump’s objection.
“I’ll definitely take that matchup over any day of the week and over Sunday,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chairman. “As Trump and Vance have an agenda centered around themselves and their wealthy donor friends, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting for the American people.”
Perhaps one of Biden’s biggest assets in his campaign against Vance is what Vance has said about Trump before.
In the early stages of Trump’s political career, Vance cast Trump “Total Fraud,” “A Moral Catastrophe” and “America’s Hitler.”
“If you go back and listen to the things that JD Vance said about Trump … he said some things about me, but look at what he said about Trump,” Biden told NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday.
Vivek Ramaswamy, once considered Trump’s running mate, described Vance as “a huge asset” to the ticket, adding that Trump’s evolution will ultimately help him connect with swing voters.
“I’m someone who can say, ‘In 2016, I might not have voted for Donald Trump, but I’m totally with him today,'” Ramasamy said.
But for now, Vance Trump joins the presidential ticket as a mystery to many voters and elected officials.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Vance was one of the few vice presidential prospects who “didn’t really cross paths.”
“I don’t know that much about him,” Kemp said.
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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Bill Barrow and Jill Colvin in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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