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 is JD Vance, a relative newcomer to politics and fierce critic-turned-champion of the former president.

“As Vice President, JD will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote in his social media announcement on Monday.

James David Vance, who is 39, is a Marine Corps veteran, author and former venture capitalist 

. He has represented the state in the U.S. Senate since January 2023.

The Yale Law School graduate and investment banker first rose to national prominence in 2016 with the publication of 

a bestselling account of his upbringing — and the plight of the white working class — in Appalachia, plagued by poverty, abuse and addiction.

 nonprofit with focus areas including education and opioid addiction.

“The success of the book has given me the flexibility, but also I think the platform to talk about some of the issues that are most important to me,” 

The organization dissolved in less than two years. Next, Vance co-founded a 

 headquartered in Cincinnati and aimed at funding startups in underserved cities.

The father of three is married to his Yale Law classmate Usha Chilukuri Vance, who has previously clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Judge Amul Thapar.

He doesn’t add much diversity to the Republican ticket by way of gender or race. But as a 39-year-old millennial, he is considerably younger than Trump — and most of the vice presidents who have held the position he’s now seeking. 

Vance, who turns 40 on Aug. 2, would be one of the 

In 2021, after months of hinting at his political ambitions, Vance launched his bid for the U.S. Senate.

He won a crowded primary race in May 2022 with the help of a last-minute 

 of whom he had once been unabashedly critical.

Vance went on to win the general election and assume his seat in the Senate, where he has been a leading defender of Trump and 

, including opposing abortion rights and aid to Ukraine, calling for stronger border policies and downplaying the effects of climate change.

If Trump wins the presidency, Vance would have to resign his seat in the U.S. Senate — leaving an open spot in Ohio. In that case, it would fall to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to appoint his successor.

, the governor appoints the person to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate until the next election, which would be in November 2026.

Vance made no secret of his dislike for then-candidate Trump while promoting his book in 2016, calling him 

 “noxious,” “cultural heroin” and “might be America’s Hitler.”

, Vance said he would either vote third party, “hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton” or “write in my dog because that’s about as good as it seems.”

“But I think that I’m going to vote third party because I can’t stomach Trump,” he added. “I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

But Vance has dramatically changed his tune over the years, 

 as “stupid” on the campaign trail in 2022. Trump, who has called Vance a “genuine convert” to his cause, seemed to put that checkered history behind them when he 

“Like some others, JD Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” Trump said. “He is our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.”

Vance has been a staunch defender of Trump during his time in the Senate, even 

 to the former president’s hush money trial in New York.

blame the rhetoric of the Biden administration

 for Trump’s attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend.

Vance, like Trump, denies 2020 election results

In Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump has found a fellow election denier as his running mate — 

 about the upcoming presidential election.

Vance said on the campaign trail that he thought the 2020 election was “stolen from Trump.”

 And earlier this year, Vance told ABC News he still questions the results of the 2020 election.

“Do I think there were problems in 2020? Yes, I do,”

 he told George Stephanopoulos in February.

Vance, who at the time was being floated as a potential vice presidential nominee, also said that President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump should not have been immediately certified.

“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there,”  Vance said. “That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that’s what we should have done.”

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The father of three is currently the junior senator of Ohio, and author of the 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” a New York Times bestseller.

Who is JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president

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