What to know about Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate
CNN
With Donald Trump’s choice to make JD Vance his running mate, he adds to the ticket an author and senator once known as a “Trump whisperer” for his understanding of the former president’s voter base.
With Donald Trump’s choice to make JD Vance his running mate, he adds to the ticket an author and senator once known as a “Trump whisperer” for his understanding of the former president’s voter base. The onetime “Never Trump” Republican, Vance, 39, shot to fame over his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and would eventually win over Trump ahead of his run for Senate. The former lawyer and venture capitalist has since become a loyal follower of Trump and heir-apparent to his particular brand of Republican populist politics. Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio, on August 2, 1984, and spent some of his childhood in Kentucky. He served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 before attending the Ohio State University and Yale Law School. Vance later worked as a venture capitalist before running for office. Vance’s wife, Usha, is a litigator and fellow Yale Law School alum who previously clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Judge Brett Kavanaugh, then of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They have three children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel. In 2016, Vance released his bestselling book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which chronicled his childhood in a poor Rust Belt town in eastern Ohio and captured the struggles of America’s White working class. His understanding of the population that turned out to support Trump’s first presidential run made him a frequent guest on cable news programs during Trump’s run and presidency. He was a CNN contributor from 2017 to 2018. The book was turned into a 2020 Netflix movie starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.
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