Former President Donald Trump has selected Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, aged 39, as his running mate for the upcoming US general election.
News About Nigeria reports that Trump made the highly anticipated announcement on Monday, marking the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin.
This move signals a significant development in the election landscape, as Trump and Vance gear up to contest the presidency and vice presidency respectively.
“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.
Trump stressed that Vance, on the campaign trail, “will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly, for the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.”
Vance hails from Ohio, a one-time battleground state the former president comfortably carried in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
The senator’s selection is expected to boost Trump among working-class Democrats.
A staunch conservative from a Republican state, Vance is unlikely to bring many new voters into Trump’s corner and may even alienate some moderates.
Some Trump supporters had pushed him to select a woman or person of colour as his No. 2 to expand a coalition that skews toward white men.
The former president, 78, survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday by a gunman whose motive remains unknown.
Several of Trump’s highest-profile backers – including former senior adviser Steve Bannon and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. – have praised Vance for pushing the Republican Party to embrace a more hands-off foreign policy approach and for supporting trade barriers.
Vance has also delighted Trump supporters with his confrontational social media presence, a relative rarity in the Senate, where many lawmakers still try to maintain a sense of decorum and civility.
