MILWAUKEE — MILWAUKEE (AP) — JD Vance should help Donald Trump win the Midwest this fall.
But almost immediately after the Ohio senator was announced as Trump’s choice for vice president One thing became clear on Monday: Vance, a 39-year-old Republican with less than two years in Congress, is not well known among many in his party, even in the swing states where Trump hopes he can deliver.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra gave a blunt response when asked about Trump’s pick minutes after the announcement: “We don’t know him.”
“If he’s from Ohio, he understands our state and the other northern battlegrounds,” Hoekstra said, standing on the floor of the Republican National Convention. “But we haven’t had a chance to judge him yet.”
Trump’s team now has less than four months to boost Vance’s profile in the states that matter most this fall in his 2020 rematch against the Democratic president. Joe BidenA collection of political opponents — Democrats and Republicans — are already moving to fill the void by playing on Vance’s lack of government experience, his nationalist views and his critical comments about Trump himself.
“I’m not sure he’s helping him in the campaign,” said veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who suggested that Vance might be better positioned to help Trump push his agenda on Capitol Hill if given the chance. “He’s not even that well-known in Ohio. … This is not a campaign choice. It’s a policy choice, an administration choice.”
Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump’s top adviser in the White House, had encouraged Trump to pick a different running mate in the weeks leading up to his announcement. In her heart, she believed that Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida or Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia would do more to help Trump win.
Vance, who quickly built a reputation as a MAGA firebrand in his short time on Capitol Hill, drew a modest round of applause when he first entered the packed Congressional chamber as Trump’s running mate on Monday. The Republican senator posed for selfies, shook hands and signed posters. Later in the evening, the crowd was even more enthusiastic when he greeted Trump — who entered the chamber with a bandage over his right ear, injured in Saturday’s assassination attempt — for the ticket’s first public appearance.
Recent polls confirm the idea that most voters do not know Vance.
According to a New York Times report, only 13% of registered voters said they had a positive opinion of Vance, while 20% had an unfavorable opinion. CNN Poll end of June. The majority said they had never heard of him or had no opinion about him.
Trump’s choice for vice president may be the most important decision of his 2024 campaign. Vance, who is literally half Trump’s age at 78 and has the least political experience on a short list that includes Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Trump’s critics from both parties saw their opportunity and immediately went after him.
“Almost any other choice could have expanded the map for them, but Trump needed a candidate who looked like him, talked like him, and thought like him. He needed a candidate who would grovel,” former New Hampshire Republican Party Chair Jennifer Horn wrote on X. “J.D. Vance was the least experienced, least qualified, most submissive, psychopathic, subservient candidate on the ballot.”
But Trump based his own judgment on other criteria.
Trump was particularly taken with Vance’s television appearances, where he has become a fixture in conservative media. The former president also takes a liking to Vance’s appearance, saying he reminded him of “a young Abraham Lincoln.”
Trump also hopes Vance can use his life story, growing up in Appalachia, to appeal to Midwestern voters. Vance has experienced poverty and addiction firsthand in a way that is unusual among leading Republican officials.
Vance had another advantage: his chemistry with Trump. The first-term senator has built strong ties with Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and prominent MAGA figures during his recent rise in Republican politics.
Vance is an Ivy League-educated author, former Marine, and businessman known for his aggressive questioning of Biden administration officials.
On Monday, Biden’s campaign held a conference call condemning the choice, specifically focusing on Biden’s limited records on abortion and the economy and his support for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Vance previously said he would support a nationwide ban on abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy. He also said he would not have voted to certify the 2020 election results, as former Vice President Mike Pence did over Trump’s objections.
“I will certainly fight that matchup every day of the week and twice on Sunday,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chair. “Because while Trump and Vance have an agenda that is focused on themselves and their wealthy donor friends, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting for the American people.”
Perhaps one of Biden’s biggest assets in his campaign against Vance is what Vance said earlier about Trump.
During the early stages of Trump’s political career, Vance casts Trump as “a total fraud,” “a moral disaster,” and “America’s Hitler.”
“If you go back and listen to the things that J.D. Vance said about Trump … he said some things about me, but look what he said about Trump,” Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who was also once considered a potential Trump running mate, described Vance as “a key asset” on the ticket whose development on Trump would ultimately help him connect with swing voters.
“He is also someone who can say, ‘You know, in 2016 I might not have voted for Donald Trump either, but this is why I fully support him today,’” Ramaswamy said.
But for now, Vance is one of Trump’s presidential candidates, but he remains an enigma to many voters and elected officials.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said Vance was one of the few vice presidential candidates he “really hasn’t encountered yet.”
“I don’t know that much about him,” Kemp said.
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Associated Press journalists Seung Min Kim in Washington and Bill Barrow and Jill Colvin in Milwaukee contributed to this report.