Anyone who has read Hillbilly Elegy, the Appalachian rags to Silicon Valley riches memoir of JD Vance, would have come to the same conclusion: if this guy ever went into politics, he could go all the way.
He had of course already begun his ascent, and the book was part of the climb. This week the senator for Ohio became the Republican nominee for vice-president on a ticket headed by Donald Trump.
Vance’s story, made into a Netflix movie, is remarkable. Mother a drug addict, daddy absent, brought up poor by his grandparents, went into the Marines, served in Iraq, off to Yale, then made a fortune - Dickens would have been impressed.
This week, at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, came the big finale, with his mother, now many years sober, there to see him nominated.
For all his abilities, it was a surprise to see Trump choose Vance as a running mate. There is his age, 39, and political inexperience: he only became a senator last year. He once called Trump “America’s Hitler” and himself a “Never Trumper”. Yet we are told his youthful mutterings have been forgiven and forgotten.
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It is clear what Trump can offer Vance - the chance of a lifetime now and a clear run at the presidency in 2028. But what does Vance bring to Trump? He is not a great speaker, and he rails about rich elites stiffing the working guy, which won’t sit well with donors. Trump already has a sizeable chunk of the working class vote.
The oddest thing is how much the two men are alike. If anything, Vance is more Trump than Trump. Vance loves to lob insults, as when he said America was run by “childless cat ladies” who want to make everyone as miserable as they are.
There is something else, though, that should bother people about Vance, Trump included. It is there in the book. For all his conformity, Vance has a wild streak. If can change his life and views so radically once, there is nothing to say he won’t do so again.
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