SAUNDERS: Trump embraces Vance, a young veteran and American success story

MILWAUKEE

Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate tells you everything.

It says Trump is willing to put someone on the 2024 Republican ticket who could eclipse him.

Born James Donald Bowman, Vance was raised by grandparents James and Bonnie Vance.

The GOP first-term senator from Ohio first arrived on the public stage in 2016 as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a rags-to-riches memoir that trailed Vance’s journey from a hardscrabble childhood in an Ohio where jobs were disappearing and drug use was on the rise.

Rather than surrender to the temptations of addiction and dysfunction, Vance enlisted in the Marines and later attended Yale Law School. He became a venture capitalist. In 2016, he started Our Ohio Renewal in Ohio, a nonprofit dedicated to helping disadvantaged children achieve their dreams.

His personal success story is considered by some insiders to be a shining example of how Republicans can appeal to blue-collar voters.

Vance’s vice presidential nomination Monday ends a recent spate of top tickets with no military service. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Trump, Mike Pence, Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Barack Obama did not serve in the military.

The relationship between Trump and Vance did not begin well. In 2016, as Trump eyed the White House, Vance warned that Trump was a “noxious” figure who would lead “the white working class to a very dark place.”

At age 39, with his 40th birthday in August, Vance’s youth stands out in a field dominated by an old guard: an 81-year-old (Joe Biden), a 78-year-old (Trump), and a 59-year-old (Kamala Harris).

If Trump-Vance were to win in November, and if Vance were to run for the White House twice and win — not that this outcome is likely — he conceivably could serve in the White House into 2036, when he turns 52.

Trump’s choice is a dramatic departure from his decision to enlist then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in 2016. The selection of Pence as a running mate was Trump’s way of assuring establishment Republicans that the brash GOP newcomer would have a steady hand who, as a former member of the House, could advance Trump’s policies with his former colleagues.

By the end of Trump’s term, Trump was not on speaking terms with Pence. His one-time wing-man refused to overturn the 2020 election, won by Biden, on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine lauded the decision on X. Vance, DeWine offered, is a son of Middletown, Ohio, who “can relate to the many Americans who are struggling right now to make ends meet in this era of crushing inflation.”

When you look at the big names in politics over recent years, Vance most resembles former President Barack Obama, a graduate of a name law school who made his mark with the best-selling memoir, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison trashed Trump’s pick, saying the Trump-Vance ticket “would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future.” Harrison also complained about the GOP ticket’s “out-of-touch extreme agenda.”

Sorry, but which party opened up the Southwest border for three years? Scranton Joe’s outfit is picking on the wrong guy. Like Obama, J.D. Vance is an American success story.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.