From Trump basher to Republican vice presidential pick

Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are preparing for the major election campaign in the United States that will elect the country's next vice president. One of them will be part of the long list of political leaders who have been an integral part of a president's administration. Just weeks before the November 5 election, Democrat Walz and Republican Vance are reiterating their vice presidents' messages to voters. While Mr. Vance is Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate, Mr. Walz was chosen by Kamala Harris.

Here is a look at the life and political career of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance for the 2024 US election:

Mr. Vance is a politician, author and Marine veteran who served as a junior senator from Ohio. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, he was born James Donald Bowman in Middletown in the Rust Belt region of Ohio to Don and Bev Bowman, who were of Scottish descent.

James' parents divorced when he was young, and his mother changed his middle name to David. He eventually adopted his mother's middle name, Vance, as his last name.

Mr. Vance was largely raised by his maternal grandparents, as his mother struggled with drug and alcohol abuse disorders.

His military background

For the first time since 1996, both US political parties have selected a veteran as their vice presidential candidate. After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003, Mr. Vance enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He spent four years in the USMC, including a six-month deployment to Iraq.

After his military service, Mr. Vance attended Ohio State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy in 2009. He later attended Yale University and earned a law degree in 2013.

National fame

Mr. Vance gained national recognition with his memoirs.Hillbilly Elegy“, which was published in 2016. It became a bestseller and was later adapted into a Netflix film. The book tells Mr. Vance's personal story against the backdrop of his struggles.

The book includes an excerpt about how the Marine Corps taught Mr. Vance about adulthood. “The day I graduated from boot camp was the proudest day of my life,” he wrote in the book NPR.

Mr. Trump also wrote about the book on his Truth Social platform, while also announcing Mr. Vance's name as his running mate. “JD's book 'Hillbilly Elegy' became a major bestseller and film because it championed the hard-working men and women of our country,” Trump said.

JD Vance's family

While studying at Yale, Mr. Vance met Usha Chilukuri and they married in 2014. Her parents moved to the United States in the late 1970s and now teach engineering and molecular biology in San Diego.

While Usha Vance studied at Yale and Cambridge, her father and grandfather both taught or studied at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India's premier engineering school. Her younger sister is a mechanical engineer at a semiconductor company in San Diego and her aunt works as a doctor in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

In his memoirs “Hillbilly Elegy“Mr. Vance calls his wife a “super smart daughter of Indian immigrants.” The couple has three children.

JD Vance once criticized Trump

In the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, Mr Vance was a fierce critic of Donald Trump. The BBC ran his two quotes about Mr. Trump — “My God, what an idiot” and “I find him reprehensible” — which resurfaced in July. According to one report, he had also compared Mr Trump to Hitler The Telegraph.

But when Mr. Trump narrowed his search in July this year and announced Mr. Vance as his running mate, the Ohio native became one of his most passionate defenders.

When Mr. Vance ran for the Senate in 2022, his demonstrations of loyalty, which included downplaying the attack by Mr. Trump's supporters on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, were enough to win the former president's coveted support. Mr Trump's support helped put him ahead in a closely contested primary.

Relationship with Donald Trump

Before forming a relationship with the former president, Mr. Vance had a close relationship with Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., Reuters reported. He caught the attention of Mr. Trump's son by speaking out against aid to Ukraine during Ohio's 2022 Senate primary.

In February 2023, Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance visited East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a toxic train derailment, a trip that boosted Mr. Vance's national profile.

Behind the scenes, Mr. Vance helped persuade wealthy donors to open their wallets to Mr. Trump, Reuters said, citing people with knowledge of the Republican leader's fundraising efforts. Mr. Vance helped organize a Bay Area fundraiser in June hosted by venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya.

Vance's skepticism of corporate America, his support for tariffs, his aversion to foreign entanglements and his youth make him a leading voice of a new Republican Party that, in the eyes of its supporters, is focused more on the working class than on big business.

How is the vice president elected in the USA?

The vice president is the second highest office in the executive branch of the U.S. government after the president. According to the White House, the vice president is elected along with the president by the Electoral College. Each voter casts one vote for president and another for vice president. Before the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, voters only voted for president, and the person who received the second most votes became vice president.

The primary duty of the Vice President of the United States is to be ready to assume the presidency at any time if the President is unable to fulfill his duties. This may be due to the death, resignation, or temporary incapacity of the President, or if the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet believe that the President is no longer capable of carrying out the duties of the President.

The Vice President also serves as President of the U.S. Senate, where he or she casts the deciding vote in the event of a tie.