The mood outside the Fiserv Forum on Monday was extremely positive following the former president’s announcement.
MILWAUKEE — Many attendees of the Republican National Convention were overjoyed to learn that former President Donald J. Trump selected Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential running mate on Monday.
“During the Campaign, [he] 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 posted to Truth Social.
During the Republican National Convention’s first official session in Fiserv Forum, Iowa’s Attorney General, Brenna Bird, announced the nomination on stage to the arena.
However, Sandy Graves, an alternate delegate and former 2016 delegate from Florida, and her husband, Steve, were surprised by the timing of the announcement and Bird’s selection as announcer.
“We just weren’t expecting it,” she said. “All of a sudden, they said, ‘J.D. Vance,’ and it wasn’t even announced by the Ohio delegate.”
Prior to the news of Trump’s pick, the reported front-runners of the vice president selection were Vance, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
While some attendees from Florida and Virginia expressed hope that Trump’s pick would hail from their home state — such as Rubio and Gov. Glenn Youngkin — others noted a desire for a more diverse candidate.
“[I wanted] Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” Lance Foust of Illinois said. “I would have preferred a woman on the ticket because I think that would bring the women vote out.”
Alternate New York delegate and city council candidate for New York City Rusat Ramgopal agreed with Foust’s assessment.
“I say this not because I like to play identity politics, but I was hoping that Trump would either pick an ethnic minority or a woman because I think that the Republican party has an image problem at times and needs to expand its base,” he said.
Even so, many attendees had Vance as their first choice for the position. Across the street at Heritage’s Policy Fest, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts praised Trump’s selection when the news broke.
“All of them are friends of Heritage,” he said of the front-runners. “There was someone among them though that, privately, we were really rooting for, and he’s just been named the running mate.”
“You are not going to get a better life story of the American dream than Vance,” added the wife of U.S. Rep. Barry Moore and alternate Alabama delegate Heather Moore.
Attendees around the convention praised the selection of Vance for a multitude of reasons — many of them referring to his upbringing. His 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which chronicles Vance’s rise from Appalachian poverty, has been widely known and lauded throughout conservative circles for years, Ramgopal said.
Vance’s time in the U.S. Marine Corps, education at Yale University’s law school, and work as a venture capitalist produced high praise from Republicans.
“His background honestly gives me a lot of faith in his character,” said alternate Florida delegate Jeff Feldman. “His service gives him just an extra dose of credibility, and I really respect him.”
Ramgopal also noted that immigrant voters who had escaped political violence could now be more inclined to vote for Trump as a rejection of his attempted assassination on Saturday — including Ramgopal’s father, a lifelong Democrat who immigrated from Guyana.
“Seeing a bullet to Trump’s ear and the blood coming out of him, seeing him raise his fist — at that moment, a lot of people who left their countries would be reminded of what they once left and say, ‘We don’t want that to happen here,’” Ramgopal said.
Many voters have warmed up to Trump since 2016 — including Vance, who was critical of his now-running mate’s original presidential bid. Through several now-deleted tweets, Vance criticized Trump as an “idiot” and said that he would not vote for him. In an April 4, 2016, New York Times op-ed, Vance also wrote, “Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”
However, by Vance’s Senate campaign in 2021, he had firmly cemented himself into the populist side of the GOP and reversed his self-proclamation as a “Never Trumper.” Trump endorsed Vance for Senate in April 2022.
For his vice presidential bid, Vance had something the other contenders did not — support from within the highest ranks of the Trump family.
“I thought he might be the pick when the schedule had Donald J. Trump Jr. speaking before the unnamed vice president pick, as Jr. has been friends with Vance over the years,” Ramgopal said. “That gave a hint that if he’s going to be introducing a vice president pick, it’s going to be someone they personally get along with.”
Those around the convention expressed hope that the two would work well together.
“I think that Sen. Vance has made it clear that he sincerely believes in the policy positions of President Trump and is a strong advocate,” Feldman said. “But I also see him as an independent thinker, and I think he’s a genuine person.”
If the Trump-Vance ticket is elected, Vance would become the third youngest vice president in U.S. history at 40-years-old — exciting RNC attendees eager for new Republicans to take on higher offices.
“As a young Republican –I’m 37– I was excited to see President Trump pick someone with youth,” said U.S. Congressional candidate and alternative Alabama delegate Caroleene Dobson. “I think it’s so important that we have young Republicans and young people throughout the country stepping up to serve.”
“President Trump is sensitive to getting new blood and young blood, and I think he accomplished that with this,” Feldman added.
At such a young age, many believe that Vance could be the future of the party, ushering in a new wave of Republicanism with his eventual presidency. Six former vice presidents, including current President Joe Biden, have successfully campaigned for their own Oval Office bids.
“Anyone who agrees to run for vice president has got to be thinking about the presidency— I mean, they’re one breath away from it,” said College Republican National Committee Chairman Courtney Hope Britt.
Lowell Pearson, a Missouri lawyer and former counsel to the 1988 Bob Dole presidential campaign, believes that the selection of Vance signals Trump’s desire for him to usher Republicans into a new age.
“I know President Trump wants to leave something of a legacy, assuming he’s elected this year,” Pearson said. “He must feel that Senator Vance is the right person to carry forward the Trump legacy.”
Feldman agreed, noting that while Vance must wait his turn to become president, he believes that Trump is giving him this vice presidential opportunity as preparation.
“The way I see it is that he’s the anointed one for a new generation.”