QuickTake

A Brief History of JD Vance and His Populist Politics

Vance at the Republican National Convention on Monday, July 15.Photographer: M. Scott Brauer for Bloomberg Businessweek

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By Mark Niquette and Steven T. Dennis

July 16, 2024 at 8:37 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Above all else, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his running mate for the 2024 election signals how powerful populism remains in US politics. Vance, a 39-year-old freshman senator from Ohio and the author of Hillbilly Elegy, has been one of the strongest voices for Trump’s brand of politics on Capitol Hill. He’s now positioned to be the standard-bearer of Trumpism after Trump.

The bearded senator, who often campaigns in jeans and a button-down shirt, rose from poverty to become a venture capitalist. Born in 1984 and raised in Middletown, Ohio, in part by his grandmother, he served with the US Marines in Iraq and later attended Yale Law School.