Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance reportedly moves to next step in Trump VP vetting process


                        FILE — Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) greets former President Donald Trump during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Dayton, Ohio on March 16, 2024. Vance, who once feared that Trump would be “America’s Hitler,” is now hoping to run as his vice-presidential candidate. (Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times)

Credit: NYT

Credit: NYT

FILE — Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) greets former President Donald Trump during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Dayton, Ohio on March 16, 2024. Vance, who once feared that Trump would be “America’s Hitler,” is now hoping to run as his vice-presidential candidate. (Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times)

U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is among several people being considered as running mates by former President Donald Trump, according to a report by ABC News

Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee in the race for president and is expected to face Democratic Party presumptive nominees President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and possibly third party and independent candidates, in the Nov. 5 General Election.

Citing unnamed sources, ABC News reported this week that Trump’s campaign is seeking vetting paperwork from Vance, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida.

The campaign is reportedly also seeking more information from U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Florida, and Elise Stefanik, R-New York, and Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who served as Trump’s secretary of housing and urban development, according to ABC News.

A Vance spokesman declined comment.

A Middletown native who co-founded the venture capital firm Narya in Cincinnati and gained fame as the author of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2022, defeating then-U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland Twp.

Vance had earlier won Trump’s endorsement in the bitter seven-candidate GOP primary and Trump campaigned for Vance in Dayton.

Vance has been a strong supporter of Trump and said he would have allowed Congress to consider alternate slates of Trump electors during voting to certify Biden’s Electoral College win in the 2020 presidential election. Trump continues to contend that Biden was not the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, but there is no evidence of that, and rulings in more than 60 court cases rejected Trump and others’ efforts to overturn Biden’s win of both the popular and Electoral College votes.

Vance was among the speakers at a Dayton rally featuring Trump on March 16.

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