The announcement finally came. Yesterday, while the first session of the Convention Republican National in Milwaukee, Donald Trump announced that he had chosen the Ohio senator, J.D. Vanceas its own running mate. “After much consideration, and considering the extraordinary talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the office of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the great state of Ohio,” the former president declared on Truth. Vance he was immediately among the possible candidates for the role of vice president, together with Tim Scott, Marco Rubio and Elise Stefanik. In the end, however, the choice of Trump it fell on him. And the reasons are many.
First of all, Vance he is a senator from Ohio: an electorally crucial state that the same Trump he managed to conquer both in 2016 and 2020. By focusing on the senator, the former president therefore wants to first of all send a clear signal to the blue-collar workers of the Rust Beltwho feel betrayed by the Democratic Party. On the other hand, the attention to workers and to working class has always represented a political cornerstone of Trumpism: it is no coincidence that the Republican Party has begun to grow in relation to this electoral share since Trump entered the field in 2015. In this sense, Vance it’s as far as it gets from Kamala Harris: a figure close to a liberal left that is very strong in the upper-middle class areas of large urban centers but who has absolutely nothing to say to a metalworker from Michigan.
Secondly, it should not be overlooked that Vance was in the past a harsh critic of Trumponly to change their minds later. This is an element that, in the last few hours, the Democrats have begun to ride with the aim of politically weakening the Republican presidential ticket. Such a strategy, however, is probably destined to fail. Trump he did not in fact choose VanceDespite been a harsh critic of his in the past. No, Trump he chose Vance precisely because was a harsh critic of his in the past. By selecting the Ohio senator, the former president achieves two goals in one: he shows that he is not vindictive and, above all, he shows that he is capable of changing the minds of even his most staunch opponents. This is a factor that is significantly advantageous in the electoral race.
A third important aspect to consider is that not only is there significant political harmony today between Trump And Vancebut also that the latter is just 39 years old. Which means that the senator from Ohio, in addition to being running matehas also been designated as a potential political heir to the former president, to give continuity to a possible second administration led by the same Trump.
In the end, Vance he is the author of “American Elegy”, where he talks about those “forgotten” who have become in a certain sense the founding pillar of Trumpism. “The forgotten men and women of our country will no longer be forgotten”, he declared Trump during his 2016 victory speech, taking up an expression – that of “forgotten man” – dating back to Richard Nixon it’s at Franklin D. Roosevelt. Here, the choice of Vance is going exactly in this direction. In continuing, that is, to work so that the Republican Party becomes more and more the working class camp. A working class that can no longer stand progressive abstractions, green fanaticism and know-it-all classism.
