Trump picks Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Former President Donald Trump has named Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, marking the first time in 80 years a major party's vice presidential nominee will be from Ohio.

Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, announced Vance's appointment as his running mate on Monday, marking the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The former president made his decision known on Truth Social.

"J.D. has had a very successful business career in technology and finance, and now, during the campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond," Trump wrote.

Vance could be moving to the White House less than two years after he beat Democratic challenger Tim Ryan in 2022 to be elected Ohio's next U.S. senator. Vance then joined Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in representing the Buckeye State, filling the vacancy left by Republican Sen. Rob Portman.

"Whether you voted for me or not, the thing that I promise to do is go to the United States Senate and fight every single day for the state of Ohio," said Vance the night he was elected. "Thanks to you, we get an opportunity to do just that."

The announcement comes after a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate Trump on Saturday during a rally in Pennsylvania. Shots were fired, during which Trump said a bullet pierced his ear. The U.S. Secret Service said the shooter and one spectator at the rally were killed, and two other attendees were critically injured.

"The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs," said Vance in a statement shortly after the rally on Saturday. "That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

The 39-year-old venture capitalist known for authoring the 2016 memoir-turned-Netflix-movie "Hillbilly Elegy" was propelled to victory in a crowded Senate primary after receiving Trump's highly-coveted endorsement.

Vance is the first vice presidential candidate from Ohio since 1944, when Thomas Dewey, a Republican and former Ohio governor, chose another former Ohio governor, John Bricker, to be his running mate. Dewey and Bricker lost to Democratic nominees Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

As a senator, the Middletown native has touted himself as one of the fiercest defenders of Trump's "Make America Great Again" agenda, aiming to reverse the Biden administration's "needless spending" and double down on securing the U.S.-Mexico border. Vance is also anti-abortion, does not support federal law that codified same-sex and interracial marriage, and called the House committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection a political hit job. 

Vance was also in New York to support Trump when he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business documents related to hush money payments to cover up a sexual encounter with adult firm star Stormy Daniels. The former president is set to be sentenced on Sept. 18.

"This verdict is an absolute miscarriage of justice," said Vance. "The partisan slant of this jury pool shows why we ought to litigate politics at the ballot box and not in the courtroom. Ultimately, I have faith that the 2024 election will be decided by the American people, not corrupt judges and prosecutors."

Still, Vance was a Trump critic in 2016, casting the then-reality TV star as "a total fraud," "moral disaster" and "America's Hitler." Vance is also on record voting for independent candidate Evan McMullin for president in 2016. Since then, Vance has said he was proved wrong by Trump's performance in office, and argued that most of the criticism was aired by rivals during his 2022 Senate campaign.

The pair will now face President Biden and Vice President Harris in November's election, though a growing number of congressional Democrats are calling on the president to drop out of the race after his debate with Trump last month.

Should Trump and Vance win in November, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will be responsible for temporarily filling Vance's Senate seat. That person would serve in the Senate until a special election is scheduled for November 2026, where Ohioans will then get to decide who will complete Vance's term, which runs through 2028.

Monday also marked a major legal win for Trump when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on tossed the former president's criminal charges accusing him of mishandling classified information, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was not lawfully appointed. The ruling hands a major victory to Trump, marking the first time one of his four criminal cases has been dismissed entirely.