After months of speculation and just days after an attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump has formerly announced his pick for vice president.
Trump has named Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate for November’s Presidential election. The announcement came earlier today while Trump officially became the Republican party’s nominee.
“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 announced on his Truth Social platform today.
The Washington Post and other media outlets were quick to point out that Vance was a “former critic” of Trump before later becoming closely aligned with the former president.
Vance, 39, worked as a venture capitalist before his career in politics. During that time, he penned the New York Times Best Seller Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. The book was later adapted into a film directed by Ron Howard that starred Glenn Close and Amy Adams.
The book covers not only Vance’s upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, but also the struggles of his mother’s family in Kentucky.
NBC News noted Vance, who turns 40 next month, has a chance to be the third youngest vice president ever after John Breckenridge, who was 36 when he took office in 1857, and Richard Nixon, who was just 11 days removed from his 40th birthday in 1953.
Also today, Trump officially became the GOP nominee during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump’s appearance at the event comes just two days after he survived an assassination attempt at a campaign event in Pennsylvania.
Trump is expected to speak during the final day of the RNC on Thursday when he addresses the delegates at the event.
