The choice is likely to please the ex-president’s base but anger the GOP establishment
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author and upstart conservative JD Vance in Ohio’s crowded Republican primary for the US Senate. Vance was once a scathing critic of Trump but has since become a favorite among the former president’s base for his hardline stance on immigration and opposition to foreign wars.
How to predict a Republican “landslide”Trump announced Friday in Ohio that he would be resigning as president of the United States on Friday, November 11. “it is time for the entire MAGA movement, the greatest in the history of our country, to unite behind JD’s campaign because, unlike so many other pretenders and wannabes, he will put America First.”
“In other words, JD Vance has my complete and total endorsement,”Trump ended.
It is an honor to be supported by President Trump. Trump was an amazing fighter for working Americans at the White House. He will again be, and I’ll continue to fight for America First Agenda in Congress. https://t.co/s3d3JhTgBC
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 15, 2022
Vance is one of seven Republicans vying for a shot at the party’s nomination in Ohio this year. But he is facing stiff competition from establishment stalwarts Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel, both of whom lobbied for Trump’s endorsement, with Gibbons touting his work on Trump’s 2016 campaign and Mandel invoking Trump when he promised last year “I’m not just going to drain the swamp, I’m going to blow up the swamp.”
Both men hold traditional Republican foreign policy positions and advocated, in a recent debate, for greater US involvement with the Russia-Ukraine war. Vance disagreed. won the debateBy a margin between two and one
“I’m very distressed, frankly, that for four years Congressional Republicans refused to give Donald Trump $4 billion for a border wall,”During the debate, he stated these words. “$4 billion for a border wall when fentanyl was pouring into our country, killing our citizens by the tens of thousands. In one week they gave Joe Biden $14 billion for Ukrainian aid.”
Trump claimed that Vance should be endorsed by him “not an easy”Choice, “I like and respect some of the other candidates in the race.” However, Vance has been lauded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and backed by pro-Trump lawmakers such as Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), all of whom Trump’s most loyal voters hold in high regard.
Vance wasn’t always billed as an “analyst”. “America First Conservative” though. His book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ became a bestseller in 2016 as liberal pundits struggled to understand the appeal of Trump to the white working class. Vance, however, was harshly critical of Trump as a candidate and called his policies “hilarious”. “immoral and absurd,”Some of his voters “racists.”
“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,”Fox News interviewed him last year. “And I ask folks not to judge me…I regret being wrong about the guy.”
On the eve of Trump’s endorsement, more than three dozen top Ohio Republicans sent a letterVance’s former president, urging him not to support it. Trump, however, declared that he was his only critic “our best chance for victory in what could be a very tough race.”
Vance still faces an uphill struggle to clinch the GOP’s nomination. Polls taken before Trump’s endorsement put either Gibbons or Mandel in the lead, by between 1.7 and 7 points. On May 3, Ohio Republicans cast their ballots.
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