At the 2024 Republican Convention, Donald Trump shakes hands with JD Vance while wearing an ear bandage.
Who will Donald Trump pick as his running mate for a second term? The subject had plagued his campaign for months.
His choice was novelist, venture capitalist, and fiery first-term Ohio senator JD Vance, announced Monday.
The decision changed Trump’s strategy, say experts. Unlike Trump’s former running mate, Mike Pence, who moderated his campaign, his latest choice embraces hard-right “Make America Great Again” ideology and breaks with the Republican establishment.
Vance gave a nomination address at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, advocating for a bolder GOP.
this is a night of optimism for what America once was and will become again with God’s help. It reminds us of our solemn duty to maintain the American experiment and choose a new path for our children and grandchildren, Vance said.
Shouldn’t we have a party that debates ideas and finds the best solution? The Republican Party of the next four years.”
American University US history professor Allan Lichtman told Al Jazeera that swing-state voters and Trump skeptics will likely not like Vance.
I doubt JD Vance’s selection will alter this election. But it speaks a lot about the GOP and Trump, Lichtman added.
He suggested Trump choose someone like Republican primary challenger Nikki Haley to appeal to middle-ground supporters.
Lichtman said Trump didn’t reach out to the small but significant portion of his party that supported Nikki Haley, who has a different foreign strategy and a more moderate home policy. “Instead, he picked a younger self-clone.”
