Who is Trump’s vice president pick, JD Vance?

I am strongly against Trump. I have never been a fan of him.

"Oh my goodness, what a fool."

"I think he is despicable."

This is what JD Vance said during interviews and on Twitter in 2016, as his memoir Hillbilly Elegy gained widespread attention and made him well-known.

That year, he sent a personal message to a friend on Facebook, expressing his conflicting thoughts about Trump. He was unsure if Trump was a deceitful person or if he resembled Hitler.

After a brief period of time, Mr Vance changed himself into a loyal supporter of Trump.

Several years later, the senator from Ohio who was in their first term is now running alongside Trump as the vice presidential candidate. This also makes them an early favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. They have a consistently conservative voting history and come from the Midwest, which is likely to attract more voters to their campaign.

Indeed, Mr. Vance has a tendency to undergo change. How did he rise from a difficult childhood to achieve success in American politics?

Mr. Vance, originally named James David Bowman, was born in Middletown, Ohio. His mother had problems with addiction and his father walked out on the family when he was very young.

He grew up under the care of his grandparents, who he lovingly depicted in his 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy.

Despite being situated in the industrial area of Ohio known as the rust belt, Mr. Vance felt a strong connection to his family's origins in Appalachia, a large mountainous region that extends from the southern US to the edges of the Midwest. Appalachia is known for being home to some of the most economically disadvantaged areas in the country.

A look into the challenges, struggles, and mistakes of his family and friends was depicted truthfully by Mr. Vance. The book also showcased a conservative perspective, portraying them as consistently overspending, relying on government assistance, and often unable to improve their situations through hard work.

He mentioned that he witnessed people from the Appalachian region responding poorly to difficult situations and believed that they were influenced by a societal environment that promotes negative behavior instead of addressing it.

"The truth can be difficult to face," he penned, "especially for those living in the hills who must confront their own realities."

As he criticized the "elites" and high society, he portrayed himself as an alternative to the continual disappointments of his upbringing.

When the book was published, Mr. Vance had already worked hard to achieve success, moving from Middletown to the US Marines where he served in Iraq. Later, he attended Ohio State University, Yale Law School, and eventually landed a job as a venture capitalist in California.

The book Hillbilly Elegy turned him into a popular writer and a highly requested analyst who was often invited to discuss why white working-class voters supported Donald Trump. He always took any chance he could to voice his criticisms of the Republican nominee at the time.

"I believe this election is truly impacting the white working class negatively," he shared with an interviewer in October 2016.

"What is happening is allowing individuals to blame others, like Mexican immigrants, Chinese trade, Democratic elites, or any other scapegoat."

In 2017, Mr. Vance came back to Ohio and kept working in venture capital. He has a family with his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, whom he met at Yale. They have three kids - Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel.

Usha Vance has a unique background compared to her husband, as she is the child of Indian immigrants raised in San Diego. She studied at Yale for her undergraduate degree and later went on to obtain a masters degree from University of Cambridge. After completing law school, she worked as a clerk for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and now works as a litigator.

For a while, people had been quietly talking about Mr. Vance as a potential political candidate. When Ohio's Republican senator, Rob Portman, announced that he would not be running for re-election in 2022, Mr. Vance saw his chance to step into the political arena.

Even though his campaign started off slowly, it was given a boost with a $10 million donation from his former boss, influential Silicon Valley figure Peter Thiel. However, the main obstacle preventing him from winning in the increasingly Republican state of Ohio was his previous criticisms of Trump.

He said sorry for what he said before and was able to repair their relationship and gain Trump's support. This helped him become the leading candidate in the Republican party and eventually get elected to the Senate.

During this journey, Mr. Vance has emerged as a significant figure in the realm of Make America Great Again policies, fully aligning himself with President Trump's agenda.

While in the Senate, he consistently votes in favor of conservative policies, supports economic measures that appeal to the general public, and has become one of the most prominent lawmakers expressing doubt about providing aid to Ukraine.

Because he has not been in the Democratic-led chamber for very long, the bills he has put forward have not made much progress. These bills usually aim to communicate a message rather than actually affect policies.

Recently, Mr. Vance proposed new laws to stop giving money to colleges that have encampments or demonstrations about the Gaza-Israel conflict, as well as colleges that hire people without proper documentation.

Demonstrating his aggressive stance on foreign policy and his expertise in finance, Mr. Vance introduced a bill in March that aims to prevent the Chinese government from accessing US financial markets unless it complies with international trade regulations.

In 2019, Mr Vance converted to Catholicism and now opposes abortion. However, he has recently supported Trump's stance that each state should have the power to make decisions on this issue.

In 2022, when news of Mr. Vance's comment about Hitler surfaced, a spokesperson did not deny it, but rather stated that it no longer reflects Mr. Vance's current beliefs.