RNC Convention 2024
RNC Convention 2024
Trump and Vance secure GOP ticket at the RNC
Donald Trump Secures GOP Nomination Amid Tumultuous Events
In a significant development, former President Donald Trump officially secured the GOP nomination for president following the commencement of the Republican National Convention today. This milestone comes just two days after a dramatic assassination attempt during a campaign rally, where Trump was shot in the ear.
Trump, addressing his supporters via social media, announced his choice of running mate: Ohio Senator JD Vance. Vance, who once publicly criticized Trump, has since become one of his staunchest supporters.
In a related legal twist, the judge presiding over the classified documents case against Trump dismissed the indictment earlier today, marking a major legal victory for the former president.
These events collectively underscore a dramatic and rapidly evolving political landscape as Trump continues his bid for the presidency.
Vance said in a 2018 edition of his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” that he voted for a third-party candidate in 2016.
“And despite all of my reservations about Donald Trump (I ended up voting third party), there were parts of his candidacy that really spoke to me,” Vance wrote in the book’s afterword.
He went on to describe the aspects of Trump’s campaign that appealed to him: “from his disdain for the ‘elites’ and criticism of foreign policy blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan to his recognition that the Republican Party had done too little for its increasingly working- and middle-class base.”
“For so many years, I and a few of my intellectual fellow travelers in the Republican Party were telling politicians to make precisely those sorts of arguments,” he continued. “Yet the populist rhetoric of the campaign hasn’t informed the party’s approach to governing. Unless that changes, I suspect Republicans will pay a heavy political price.”
Shortly after Trump announced Vance as his 2024 running mate, delegates in the audience grabbed markers and began transforming their Trump campaign posters into signs endorsing the full 2024 ticket: Trump-Vance.
Then as Vance made his way onto the convention floor, the first time since the announcement, delegates raised their new posters high above their heads.
Vance was just introduced as Trump’s vice presidential pick at the convention. He walked through the Ohio delegation, shaking hands with delegates.
What happens to Vance’s Senate seat if Trump wins?
Vance is less than two years into a six-year Senate term, which means his seat would be up for grabs if the Trump-Vance ticket wins the presidential race this fall.
In that event, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, would get to appoint a replacement senator, after which there would be a special election to fill the remainder of the term.
The three Republicans who ran in the GOP primary to challenge Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio., all praised Trump’s pick of Vance as his running mate.
Bernie Moreno, who won the GOP primary, said that the selection was “brilliant.”
“JD is a dynamic, visionary leader who is the perfect messenger for the America First agenda alongside President Trump,” he said. “He will fight with President Trump for our middle class, secure our border, and unleash American energy. I am proud to call JD a friend and I look forward to working with him to fire Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Sherrod Brown.”
The other two former Ohio Senate candidates who praised Vance were Frank LaRose and Matt Dolan.
Biden campaign reacts to Vance pick for Trump’s VP
Biden-Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a new statement that Trump picked Vance to be his running mate because the Ohio Republican would do what Mike Pence wouldn’t do as president on Jan. 6.
Trump picked Vance because “Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 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,” she said.
She added that the Biden campaign will spend the next several months “making the case between the two starkly contrasting visions Americans will choose between at the ballot box this November: the Biden-Harris ticket who’s focused on uniting the country, creating opportunity for everyone, and lowering costs; or Trump-Vance — whose harmful agenda will take away Americans’ rights, hurt the middle class, and make life more expensive — all while benefiting the ultra-rich and greedy corporations.”
The campaign immediately began fundraising off the pick.
How Vance went from Trump critic to his VP
Vance, 39, a first-term senator, first rose to fame after he published his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about having grown up poor in Ohio. A graduate of Yale Law School and a Marine veteran, Vance worked in venture capital before he moved back to his home state to start his own firm and eventually run for office in 2022.
Vance lamented Trump’s rise in the party publicly, and he described himself as “Never Trump guy” in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016. But Vance ultimately changed tack, seeking — and scoring — Trump’s key endorsement for the Senate in the midterms, without which he might not have won the primary. He has been a reliable Trump supporter in Congress and on the campaign trail.
