Trump picks Ohio senator JD Vance as 2024 running mate

Donald Trump has picked as his running mate JD Vance, the young Ohio senator and author of a best-selling memoir about his experience of rural poverty, in a choice aimed at winning blue-collar voters across the swing states of the industrial Midwest, News.Az reports citing the Financial Times.

Trump announced Vance, an ideologue of the former president’s Maga movement, on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, just two days after a gunman attempted to assassinate him.

Hours later Trump and Vance appeared together at the convention in the former president’s first public appearance since the weekend’s shooting. Trump had a gauze bandage on his ear where he was hit by a bullet on Saturday at a campaign rally.

Trump entered the hall to a standing ovation and a live performance of his campaign anthem, “God Bless the USA”. He did not deliver a speech, but he waved and pumped his fist as the crowd shouted “USA” and “fight”.

His announcement of Vance as running mate ended months of speculation and completed the Republican party’s 2024 ticket with less than four months to go until November’s election. Trump leads US President Joe Biden, his Democratic rival, in most national and swing state polls.

Trump’s decision marks a swift rise for Vance, 39, who was elected to the Senate for the first time just two years ago.

Trump confirmed his choice in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday afternoon, saying he had chosen Vance “after lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others”.

News.Az