Well, the speculation is over: Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio will be former President Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election.
The senator, as you might imagine, is pumped. But even more pumped might be his 7-year-old son — especially after the boy got to talk to the president when the official call was made.
Vance, once a Trump critic, had become the odds-on favorite in recent days to grab the spot, so it was little surprise. He has become a vocal supporter of the former president and his policies in the upper chamber, and his position in the Midwest solidifies the Republican nominee’s base in the Rust Belt states.
The senator’s lack of experience was considered a liability; a venture capitalist who authored the best-seller “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance threw his hat into the ring for the GOP nomination in Ohio in 2022 but was considered to be lagging behind other better-known candidates until the closing weeks of the race.
A physical confrontation on stage during a debate between the two prohibitive favorites, former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and investment banker Mike Gibbons, threw the race into chaos; Trump’s endorsement elevated Vance to a primary win and a 6-point victory over Democratic opponent Rep. Tim Ryan.
Since then, Vance has been mentioned as possible veep material, particularly given his young age compared with the two presidential candidates (Vance is 39, while Trump is 78 and President Joe Biden is 81) and his visibility in the Republican senatorial caucus.
However, in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday after he was announced as Trump’s running mate, the senator said the former had a conversation with someone even younger than him when the decision came down.
“I will say, Sean — I hope I’m not betraying too many confidences here,” Vance began. “But when the president called me today and actually formally offered me to become, you know, the vice presidential nominee, which just sounds crazy, my son, my 7-year-old son, was sort of making noise in the background.
“And, you know, I get so embarrassed, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, Donald Trump is asking me to be his vice president –”
Hannity then interrupted to say, “So he calls you and you’re like, ‘OK, this is the call?’ Or maybe not the call?”
“Or maybe it’s a bad call,” Vance answered. “It’s the call. Who knows whether it’s good or bad?
“But then he actually has me put my 7-year-old son on the phone,” the senator said, looking amazed.
“You think about this,” he said. “Everything that happened — the guy just got shot at a couple of days ago, and he takes the time to talk to my 7-year-old.
“It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
And he did it without sniffing the kid’s hair! You can bet that if this were the current president and it was a video call, that’d be a distinct possibility: “No, Mr. Biden, you cannot smell someone’s hair through the — it’s a computer screen, please will you — can someone with the Secret Service turn off the WiFi? Hello?”
Instead, you probably had Trump telling Vance’s son how great of a dad he has. And, from all indications, he’s probably right.
Jokes aside, it’s a special moment — both for Vance, whose path to the top has been both hard-fought and quick, and his son.
Who would be more likely to creepily sniff a child: Trump or Biden?
Who knows? Maybe in another 30 years or so, Barron Trump will be making the same call to Vance’s kid — or maybe it’ll be the other way around.
Either way, it was a heartwarming moment in a week that certainly needed one.
