When former president Donald Trump was casting his heir apparent, he told allies he was drawn by JD Vance’s “beautiful blue eyes” — at least according to the New York Times.
The reality-TV star thought the 40-year-old senator from Ohio was made for the screen — smart, handsome, and sharp. If Tuesday night’s policy-heavy vice presidential debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was an audition for the Trump understudy, Vance killed it.
In his biggest moment since accepting the VP nomination in July, Vance was composed in delivery, quick in argument, and cutting on attacks. Most voters don’t choose presidents based on vice-presidential debates. But if you’re wondering who could emerge as the leader of the American Right when the 78-year-old Trump inevitably exits, Vance made a strong case for himself Tuesday night.
From the start, the Yale Law School graduate and Marine veteran from a poor, rural town was quick to bring up his life story. Three weeks before Trump picked Vance, 56% of American adults had not heard of him, according to a CNN poll. Before answering the first question in the debate, Vance introduced himself and his background.
“I was raised in a working class family. My mother required food assistance for periods of her life,” Vance said. “My grandmother required Social Security help to raise me. And she raised me in part because my own mother struggled with addiction for a big chunk of my early life. I went to college on the GI bill after I enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Iraq. And so I stand here asking to be your vice president with extraordinary gratitude for this country.”
That message resonates with Americans more than hour-long rants about past election fraud.
The Ohio senator left his past criticism of “childless cat ladies” at home and stuck to policy issues. Both candidates were polite and, in some moments, even conciliatory.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned more than two years ago, Republicans have struggled to scrape together a coherent answer while the pro-life movement repeatedly loses state ballot measures. But Vance sounded like a human being.
“I knew a lot of young women who had unplanned pregnancies and decided to terminate those pregnancies because they felt like they didn’t have any other options,” Vance said. “One of them is actually very dear to me. And I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you.”
And then he turned to Republicans.
“My party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance said.
Unlike other Republicans, Vance did not dodge the issue. He offered his party a better strategy to address abortion.
Pro-lifers can be disappointed with changes to the GOP policy platform or the reluctance of Republican politicians to back more national restrictions. But Vance’s answer — one that first acknowledges the circumstances that drive women to abortion — will win more hearts and minds than one that does not. How often have Republicans omitted these kinds of statements from their rhetoric on abortion?
On other issues — from guns, to housing, to childcare — the candidates acknowledged they both wanted to address similar problems. When debating how to bring down firearm deaths, neither said the other wanted kids to die. Is it really 2024?
If he wants to lead the party four years from now, Vance will need to bring other Republicans behind his support for higher tariffs and family entitlement expansion. Perhaps the biggest question for Vance is whether he can convince his party that taxes on imported goods — from steel to baby formula — will make Americans better off.
Trump still dominates Republican politics, and his running mate is forced to defend the former president’s more unpopular actions and statements. When asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, he glossed over Trump’s continued denials and pivoted to attacks on Democrats.
But soon, the 45th president will be out of the picture.
So for any gamblers looking to make a buck, here’s a 4-leg parlay for the next four years: Hillsdale announces six more years of quad construction in 2025, the U.S. soccer team loses its first match of the 2026 World Cup, a 43-year-old Aaron Rodgers wins his second Super Bowl in 2027, and JD Vance accepts the 2028 Republican nomination for president.
Chargers with student debt, take note.
