Trump pick of J.D. Vance as running mate opens new battlefront in presidential race

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - JULY 15: U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance celebrate as he is nominated for the office of Vice President alongside Ohio Delegate Bernie Moreno on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Delegates, politicians, and the Republican faithful are in Milwaukee for the annual convention, concluding with former President Donald Trump accepting his party's presidential nomination. The RNC takes place from July 15-18. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

MILWAUKEE — Republicans on the floor of the Republican National Convention cheered Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance becoming their vice presidential nominee Monday, as Democrats slammed his opposition to abortion rights, and called him inexperienced and a “clone” of Donald Trump.

Reaction from all corners of American politics poured in as GOP delegates inside the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, formally nominated Vance just hours after Trump announced his pick earlier in the day.

President Joe Biden, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, told reporters that there’s no daylight between Trump and Vance.

“A clone of Trump on the issues,” Biden said. “I don’t see any difference.”

Republicans and Trump’s family members had vastly different reactions.

Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who formally nominated Vance from the RNC Convention, said the “vice presidency is an office of sacred trust.”

“The man who accepts this nomination accepts with it the awesome responsibility to give wise counsel to the president, to represent America abroad, to preside over the Senate and to be ready to lead our nation at a moment’s notice,” Husted said. “Such a man must have an America first attitude in his heart.”

Nomination moment

Vance stood on the floor of the arena with his wife, Usha Vance, by his side, as Husted gave the formal nominating speech.

Screens in the large arena showed photos of Vance throughout the speech.

Bernie Moreno, the GOP candidate seeking to unseat Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown this November, made the motion to nominate Vance, which was approved with a unanimous-sounding voice vote.

“To J.D. Vance, ‘America First’ is not just a slogan. It’s his North Star,” Moreno said. “He has followed it in every moment of his life and career. He knows what it’s like to live in poverty, forgotten by Washington politicians. He is dedicated to ensure that no American is ever forgotten again.”

Florida Rep. Kat Cammack said during a brief interview with States Newsroom on the floor of the RNC Convention that Vance brings “a lot of enthusiasm” to the ticket, in part, because “the base loves him.”

“We have the opportunity now to move forward and bring this home,” Cammack said.

Donald Trump Jr. talked with reporters on the floor of the Fiserv Forum to reject criticism that Vance doesn’t have enough legislative experience after less than two years in Congress.

“My father had zero political experience, he went on to peace deals in the Middle East, the greatest job economy in the world, incredible prosperity for everyone, with no experience,” Trump Jr. said. “If experience is a marker for Washington, D.C., politics, it’s a bad one.”

Montana Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, congratulated Vance in a statement, saying Trump made a “great choice” and that Vance “connects with the working class voters we need to win this election.”

Some of the Republicans who had been on Trump’s short list for the vice presidential pick reacted positively.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio posted “#TrumpVance2024!!!”, though others who weren’t chosen didn’t react immediately.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said on social media Monday afternoon that Vance’s “small town roots and service to country make him a powerful voice for the America First Agenda,” adding that he looks forward to campaigning for the Trump-Vance ticket.

Biden campaign cites abortion stance

The Biden campaign organized a call with reporters Monday afternoon following Trump’s announcement that Vance will be his running mate.

Campaign officials, joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and abortion rights activists, decried Vance’s record and accused him of supporting abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest.

They also warned Vance would be instrumental to Trump’s administration in cheering on conservative policy ideas, like the roadmap in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — a recent focus of the Biden campaign.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, chair of the Biden campaign, told reporters that “clearly Vance won Trump’s sweepstakes by passing his MAGA litmus test with flying colors.”

“You know, Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because he will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6, bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and certainly no matter the harm to the American people,” O’Malley Dillon said, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that delayed the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

“With Trump and Vance now entering the general election, they’re facing off against the Biden-Harris ticket and I will certainly take that matchup any day of the week and twice on Sunday,” O’Malley Dillon said, seemingly giving a nod to the campaign’s defense of Biden in recent weeks as high-profile donors and Democrats have called for Biden to exit the race after his weak debate performance.

The campaign said Vice President Kamala Harris has already accepted the CBS invitation for a vice presidential debate and is ready to face Vance.

“The VP will take it to J.D. Vance,” Warren said on the call. “She is strong, she knows what she’s talking about and she doesn’t give an inch.”

The Democratic National Committee issued a statement Monday afternoon that said November brings “the most consequential election of our lifetimes, and with Donald Trump’s decision today to add J.D. Vance to the Republican ticket, the stakes of this election just got even higher.”

“J.D. Vance embodies MAGA — with an out-of-touch extreme agenda and plans to help Trump force his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” said DNC Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.

“Let’s be clear: A Trump-Vance ticket would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future,” Harrison later continued in the statement.

The National Women’s Law Center Action Fund weighed in on Trump’s pick, calling Vance an “extremist.”

“Women and girls deserve to live in a country where they are free to make their own choices and live without fear,” Fatima Goss Graves, the action fund’s president, said in the statement. “That is why we must work to ensure that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are not given the power to inflict a national abortion ban and force their radical MAGA agenda on the rest of us.”

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