J.D. Vance’s Chance – The New York Times

Donald Trump did something yesterday that he’s never before done. He picked a successor.

Trump chose Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate, a strategic move driven by the former president’s belief that he’ll win in November by recapturing the Midwestern states he lost in 2020. With Vance’s hardscrabble upbringing and Trump-aligned ideology, the senator is Trump’s attempt to appeal to those voters.

Selecting Vance also signals the party’s final commitment to Trumpism. Vance is one of the most aggressive and ideological disciples of the MAGA movement. Instead of balancing the ticket with someone who could expand Trump’s appeal to new voters, Trump has anointed the senator as the future of the Republican Party.

The party that Trump took over in 2016 — one guided by establishmentarians like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and John McCain — is now unrecognizable. Trump ushered in economic populism and pushed out the quest for limited government spending. He traded foreign interventionism for restrictive trade policies and downgraded the importance of country-club Republicans while prioritizing blue-collar workers.

The arrival of Vance on the ticket shows there is no going back.

At first blush, it may seem surprising that Trump would put the future of the party in the hands of a relatively new convert to his brand of conservatism. (As an author and private citizen, Vance said in 2016 that Trump might be “America’s Hitler.” Later, as he ran for office, the Ohioan embraced Trumpism.) But Trump is focused on winning, and he believes Vance is an asset.

An unusual path

There are several reasons Trump was drawn to Vance. The senator is an articulate communicator on television. Even his most ardent critics respect his expertise as a MAGA spokesman, a skill that Trump highly prizes. Vance also served in the Marines and deployed to Iraq, making him the only candidate on either party’s ticket with military experience.

Vance, a Yale Law School graduate and former venture capitalist, was previously known for his best-selling book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which later became a film starring Amy Adams. The subject is Vance’s upbringing in a poor family, but the context is about an often overlooked segment of the country: white, working-class people in Middle America. The book turned him into a renowned explainer of Trumpism’s appeal even as he criticized Trump.

But Vance carries risk, too. At 39, he’s the second-youngest member of the Senate. He was sworn into office for the first time last year. That limited political résumé could undercut Trump’s attack on Vice President Kamala Harris as ill-prepared to step in for President Biden if necessary.

Vance had also been one of Trump’s most biting critics, and he left a trail of video clips for Democrats to use against the former president. Even in his new life as a pro-Trump Republican, Vance carries a controversial record, including his pledge to end abortion and his outspoken support for a national abortion ban proposed by Senator Lindsey Graham. (Aligning with Trump, Vance said in an interview with Sean Hannity last night that abortion should be decided at the state level.)

The last leg

Vance ascends to the ticket as Trump seems to be gathering steam. A judge yesterday dismissed the criminal case against him for taking classified documents from the White House. He survived an assassination attempt this past weekend and leads in the polls. Meanwhile, Democrats crestfallen about Biden’s debate performance have tried pushing for the president to quit the race.

In that climate, Vance is more wind at Trump’s back — youth and energy and buzz. Even if the former president has chosen political kinship over party expansion, he’s betting that Vance has what he needs to retake the presidency.

More on Vance

• Trump picked Vance — a more combative choice than his other finalists, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota — almost at the last minute.

• On Fox News, Hannity asked Vance about his earlier criticisms of Trump. Vance laughed and said, “He changed my mind.”

• Harris called Vance to congratulate him, and to ask him to take part in a vice-presidential debate.

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