Ohio Senator JD Vance, elected on Monday as “number two” to former Republican US President Donald Trump In his campaign for the White House, he said he was overwhelmed and appealed to citizens: “Onward to victory!”“Simply overwhelmed with gratitude. What an honor to stand alongside Donald J. Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once and with your help he will do so again. Onward to victory!” he said on X in his first public message after being nominated.

Born in Middletown, Ohio, 39 years ago, he was chosen by Trump on Monday as his vice presidential candidate if he comes to power after the November 5 elections and the Republican Party subsequently gave him its unanimous support. The announcement took place at the Republican convention, which is being held from Monday to Thursday in Milwaukee, in the key state of Wisconsin, with the aim of formalize both candidacies and to ratify the so-called platform, its electoral ideology.

Now, Vance belongs to the Trumpist wing in the Upper House, however, It wasn’t always like this. In fact, he participated in the moderate conservatives’ ‘Never Trump’ campaign in 2016, which tried to prevent Trump from becoming the Republican candidate for president. At first, they failed to do so, although they did not stop trying to stop the tycoon from running for the White House.

Years later, in 2022, when Vance’s path to the Senate began, he decided to side with the tycoon. However, he had to apologize to Trump for the criticisms he had made about the president, which included epithets such as “America’s Hitler” or “a cynical imbecile”One of them is a message exchanged via social media, the recipient of which did not hesitate to reveal when Vance joined Trump. Specifically, it was the senator for Georgia, Josh McLaurin.

In the message they spoke with McLaurin about the disaffection that the Republican Party suffered from the electorate that made the magnate’s speech a favorite. A question that he attributed to the fact that the party had become “the party of the whites with the lowest incomes and the least education”something that in his eyes had to be corrected by offering “something to those people.” Trump did it as “fruit of the collective abandonment of the party”Vance said in the message, while claiming to be undecided “between thinking that Trump is a cynical idiot (…) or that he is the Hitler of the United States.”

His economic vision was also evident in his book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’, a work in which he combines his memoirs with an essay on poverty in white American society, as a well-versed expert on the subject. Vance was raised by his maternal grandparents in the face of his mother’s addictions and the absence of his father in the industrial belt of the United States. The publication became a bestseller, which led Vance to gain great popularity, leading him to participate in television talk shows.

During these interventions he also left relevant criticisms against Trump with intentions, even, of “hold your nose and vote for Hillary Clinton“a Democratic Party candidate in the 2016 election campaign. Along these lines, she explained that she had not voted “for Trump” because she could not “stand him” considering that “he is harmful” as well as “really scandalous and offensive.”

However, it is his economic doctrine focused on the white American working man that would have led the Republicans to support his candidacy for the US vice presidency in the upcoming November elections. Thus, some voices point out that the aim is to welcome this type of electorate, as well as a younger one who is no less conservative.

This is evidenced by the attitude he adopted in his book, which Netflix later adapted into a film. In the essay, he defined his own friends and family as chronic spenders, dependent on welfare and unable to get ahead on their own. This financial profile as a venture capitalist by training, however, has not helped him to achieve his goals. Their bills in the Senate have been approvedAccording to the BBC, its aim is more to send messages than to change policies.

Like his leader, Donald Trump, he also shows disaffection for immigrants. One of his proposals contemplated the withdrawal of federal funds for universities that offered jobs to undocumented immigrants. An ideology that also coincides with a certain aggressiveness in terms of foreign policy, since he also proposed removing funding from those campuses where they were installed. pro-Palestinian camps.

Both facets are understood if one looks at Vance’s education, since before studying Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Ohio, as well as Law at Yale, Vance was also a member of the Navy, even going on a mission to Iraq. Another point that defines his politics is his recognition as a Catholic, which leads him to show himself contrary to the right to abortionalthough he agrees with Trump that the decision should be left to discretion of the various States.

Despite past differences, the two appeared together late in the opening day, in the grandstand. For Trump, it was his first public appearance since the Saturday’s attack in Butler, Pennsylvaniawhen a man shot him and him hurt in the ear. One person died and two were injuredbut the New York tycoon made it clear that same day that what had happened was not going to change the agenda of the meeting and he appeared at the meeting with a serious expression, his ear bandaged and visibly moved by the ovation with which the Republicans greeted him at the forum.