The 39-year-old senator from Ohio has a rags-to-riches background that may be useful for the Republican nominee.
MILWAUKEE—Former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), bridges the chasm between dirt-poor Appalachian families and Ivy League, Silicon Valley, and political circles.
While some GOP voters and leaders had favored a female, black, or Hispanic VP to project an image of diversity, others say Mr. Vance fits the bill in another way.
Mr. Vance “already does ‘check a box’ that people kind of overlook … socioeconomic diversity,” Marc Clauson, professor of history and law at Ohio’s Cedarville University, told The Epoch Times on July 16, a day after the former president announced his running mate.
Mr. Vance has lived in both worlds. He grew up poor in the Rust Belt, then graduated from Yale Law and became a venture capitalist, so he can relate to people in both spheres, the professor said.
That’s one reason why Mr. Clauson said he considers Mr. Vance formidable as a VP candidate.
Mr. Vance’s background is different from that of any of the “Republican elites today,” and “that’s something that common people could resonate with,” Mr. Clauson said. The freshman senator also displays a level of sophistication in being able to address the elites from both political parties, he added.
Several convention attendees told The Epoch Times they believe that Mr. Vance could help forge greater unity, which has become a political watchword following an attempt to assassinate former President Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Some Republicans expressed a lukewarm reaction to the VP pick because they had hoped for one of the other finalists, but most were of an opinion similar to that of Angela Houston, 53, an alternate convention delegate from Iowa.
“I don’t know what President Trump knows, and I trust President Trump’s judgment and his VP selection, and so I’m fully supportive,” Ms. Houston told The Epoch Times.
California delegate Evelyn Jones said she, too, trusts former President Trump’s decision.
By Janice Hisle
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