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    • JD Vance is elected vice president and jumps from the Senate to the White House
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    JD Vance is elected vice president and jumps from the Senate to the White House

    Kathleen William Posted on

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    WASHINGTON — JD Vance is known as one of the top leaders of the next generation of the populist conservative movement launched by President-elect Donald Trump. Now he will officially be Trump's successor as Vice President of the United States.

    It's been a remarkable rise for the junior senator from Ohio, who gained national fame in 2016 as the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” and, at just 40, will be one of the youngest vice presidents in American history.

    Vance expects his job as vice president to be “very active,” he told USA TODAY in September. “I know the president wants me to be involved in everything, and I certainly hope so.”

    Vance has evolved from a Republican who was never Trump into a loyalist who is often seen as one of the leading inheritors of Trump's conservative policies.

    After a childhood marred by familial addiction and abuse in a struggling industrial city, Vance joined the Marine Corps and entered the elite circles of Yale Law School and Silicon Valley.

    His memoir illustrated some of the working-class frustrations that led to Trump's first victory in 2016 and laid the groundwork for themes that would be central to his politics today – criticism of foreign intervention, free trade policies and betrayal by American elites.

    Vance became a translator of the concerns of working-class people in liberal and centrist circles confused by Trump's rise, even as he publicly described Trump as “noxious” and “reprehensible” and privately as “America's Hitler.”

    Over the next few years before his election to the Senate in 2022, Vance underwent a transformation that made him one of the most important media ambassadors for Trump's MAGA movement. He allowed himself to be persuaded to look past Trump's behavior and found that he favored his policies, Vance said, while his critics argued that this was evidence that he was duplicitous and willing to do anything for power.

    “I think it actually makes him more likeable and even a better vice president than others because he was a little Trump-skeptical early on,” Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, told USA TODAY earlier this year. “He became a believer when he saw President Trump implementing policies and decisions that were consistent with what he believes. I think this is more genuine and real.”

    Campaign victories and stumbling blocks

    Vance was used on the campaign trail to defend the president at fundraisers, rallies and news broadcasts that were not always kind to him.

    He emerged the clear winner in the only vice presidential debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who lacked Vance's ease in front of the cameras, and he regularly ended his rallies by answering questions from reporters.

    Vance stood by the president-elect during his most contentious moments of the campaign, including falsely claiming that Trump won the 2020 presidential election and defending Trump's claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, ate residents' pets, which he alleged had heard firsthand from voters, but local officials said they were not true.

    But it also caused some controversy. Old comments in which Vance referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as one of the “childless cat ladies” running the country went viral shortly after accepting the nomination, along with other previous statements suggesting that parents should have a greater right to choose than childless adults.

    Videos of embarrassing campaign encounters and startling jokes drew ridicule from the left. This combination became the reason for Walz to coin the term “weird” to describe those at the top of the Republican ticket.

    Trump chose Vance when he believed he was on track to victory in an easy race against President Joe Biden. When Biden dropped out of the race and Trump faced off against a younger, more popular Democratic candidate, it sparked speculation that Republicans would regret their choice of vice president – a rumor that the campaign pushed back on.

    Vance's short term in the Senate

    Vance's election as vice president will free up his seat in the Ohio Senate, where he will have served for only two years.

    Vance must resign before he can take the oath of office on Jan. 20, and Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will appoint a replacement until the state can hold a special election to fill his seat until his term ends in 2028 occupy.

    Despite his short tenure in the Senate, Vance became known as one of the chamber's leading critics of additional federal aid to Ukraine, arguing the effort reflected misguided support for the war in Iraq. It put him at odds with the leader of his own conference, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

    But he has also demonstrated a willingness to work with populist senators from both parties on key economic issues. He pushed for action on internet affordability, worked with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to take action against executives of failing banks and with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to strengthen federal regulations on rail safety.

    As vice president, he is expected to continue pushing for the issues he touted on the campaign trail, including foreign isolationism, increased domestic oil production and tougher border security.

    Several conservative leaders have told USA TODAY they believe he is shaping the future of the Republican Party.

    Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou told USA TODAY in September that he advocates for a “realignment” of the party to focus on “working-class Americans who feel they are being left behind in a globalist economy.”

    And Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, said both he and Vance believe “there needs to be a new conservative movement” that incorporates new ideas into long-standing policy goals and attracts new groups of voters. “I think Senator Vance is the leader of this effort, at least among elected officials in D.C.”

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    Kathleen William
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