Trump names running mate

JD Vance will be the US Republicans’ vice-presidential candidate

Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for US president in the upcoming November election, has tapped JD Vance as his running mate.

The announcement was made on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Monday evening.

James David “JD” Vance is currently the Republican senator from Ohio. He was elected in 2022 to replace the retiring GOP Senator Rob Portman. Vance has a law degree from Yale but gained national attention for his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he wrote about his childhood and the family values of Appalachian Americans. The Washington Post called him the “voice of the Rust Belt,” referring to the former industrial heartland of America that fell victim to the economic realities of globalization.

Vance had been a critic of Trump in 2016 but has since embraced his populist agenda and received Trump’s endorsement for the Senate race.

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