Sen. JD Vance. Photo courtesy of JD Vance for Senate.
As with all vice presidential nominees, J.D. Vance brings both good and some bad to the Trump ticket. At The Spectator, Ben Domenech discusses the pros and cons of Trump’s pick, writing:
The most surprising aspect of Donald Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate is how unsurprising it is, following months of debate as to the best choice for the GOP.
The number of candidates considered seriously by Trump was a much shorter list than the wide swathe initially announced as being asked for background materials, and Vance was always at or near the top. He has an outside of politics celebrity that Trump found appealing, a compelling life story retold across platforms, the combination of a blue chip pedigree and military experience and a bro sense of humor that bound him closely with Donald Trump Jr.
The positives for Vance are that he represents a loyal soldier for the Trump movement and agenda, an Aspen Ideas skeptic turned MAGA rally convert. His instinct to punch back is Trumpian — and his views on foreign policy and the nationalist economic agenda are thoroughly consistent with Trump, if not going even further. While more socially conservative than the former president, he’s also shown his pragmatism in all things when it comes to navigating the current environment. His youth renders him unattached from any of the biases of those with close ties to any past Republican administrations, and his geographic background is meant to appeal to voters in the Midwest.
The negatives for Vance are also well apparent. He’s inexperienced, having run and won just one election, which ended up being more costly than expected and in which he ran far behind other successful Republican candidates. He’s been in the Senate barely long enough to do anything of note, but with a victory in November, he’ll effectively be viewed as the presidential favorite for 2028. He comes across as extremely ambitious, doubling down on the most aggressive aspects of the Trump Republican agenda, as opposed to an approach designed to appeal directly to Independent voters or make peace with the Nikki Haley faction. It also remains to be seen if Vance’s presence on the national ticket hurts or helps the hopes of incumbent Ohio Democrat senator Sherrod Brown, currently running several points ahead of his Republican challenger.
Read more here.
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