Former President Donald Trump tapped J.D. Vance to be his running mate Monday at the Republican National Convention, catapulting the Ohio GOP senator even more into the national spotlight.
Vance grew up in Jackson, Kentucky and Middletown, Ohio. He described a childhood consumed by poverty and abuse in his best-selling 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” Vance’s mother struggled with drug addiction, so he spent many of his formative years with his grandmother – known to him as Mamaw.
Vance is 39. If elected, he would be the youngest vice president since Richard Nixon. His birthday is Aug. 2, 1984.
Vance joined the Marines Corps after high school and served as a public affairs marine in Iraq.
Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is a litigator for a law firm based in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The pair met as students at Yale Law School and got married in 2014, one year after they graduated.
The couple has three young children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.
Vance and his family live in the East Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. The senator also bought a $1.5 million home in Alexandria, Virginia, last year, Politico reported.
Vance was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 after defeating former Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan for an open seat in Ohio.
Vance openly criticized Trump in 2016 as pundits used his memoir to explain the former president’s popularity with white, rural voters. He previously suggested Trump could be “America’s Hitler,” called him noxious and compared him to an opioid.
But Vance changed his tune as he geared up for his 2022 Senate run, deleting controversial tweets and crediting Trump for the work he did in office. He secured Trump’s endorsement in a chaotic Republican Senate primary and is now one of the former president’s most loyal allies.
Read more at USAToday.com
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