Republicans are confident that former President Donald Trump made a wise decision in choosing Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate as the campaign heads into the final stretch of the election season. In the closing weeks of August, Vance has been actively campaigning, engaging with challenging media and contrasting himself with Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been avoiding media scrutiny. Prior to this, Vance faced a wave of Democratic attacks that labeled him as “weird” due to some of his past statements.
Republicans and campaign officials expressed satisfaction with Vance’s performance in conversations with the Daily Caller. “J.D. Vance is doing what Vice President picks are supposed to do, which is aggressively make the case in the Earned Media, which is the press, the entire political world is saying, not Where’s Waldo, but where’s Walz. He’s not out there making the case in the press the way VP candidates are expected to do,” GOP strategist Mark R. Weaver told the outlet.
After Trump selected Vance as his running mate, Democrats highlighted controversial remarks from a Fox News interview and a July 2021 speech, where Vance made comments about “childless cat ladies” and women without children. These comments sparked intense scrutiny, with Vance addressing them in interviews with NBC and CNN. Democrats leveraged these statements, along with debunked rumors, to label Vance as “weird,” a strategy that CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten noted was negatively impacting Vance’s favorability. Amidst this contentious start, Trump downplayed the significance of the vice presidency, a remark that some pundits and social media users interpreted as a sign of his dissatisfaction with his running mate choice.
Shermichael Singleton told the Daily Caller that the senator has since found his footing. “People forget this, J.D. Vance has only recently been elected to the United States Senate. This is not someone with multiple terms of political experience. And I don’t say that as a negative. I said that to say that a lot of people were saying, well, he’s floundering here, or he should be doing this, or he’s not doing that, or some of the comments, etc, you have to give someone an opportunity to kind of warm up to this,” the GOP strategist noted.
It didn’t take long for Vance to turn the tide. When questioned about his past comments, he skillfully pivoted to criticize Harris, shifting the focus away from his own controversies. “You’ve now asked me three questions about comments that I made three years ago,” Vance said during a fiesty CNN interview earlier this month. “I wonder what Kamala Harris thinks about the fact that she supported policies that open the American Southern border. I wonder what Kamala Harris thinks about Joe Biden’s mental faculty for the office.”
“I’m interviewing you, not Kamala Harris,” host Dana Bash responded. “You are interviewing me, Dana, because I respect the American people enough to sit down for an interview,” Vance said. “Kamala Harris has been the nominee for three weeks. She hasn’t sat down for a real interview. The VP did sit down with Bash this week, but the interview was taped and presumably edited, not live like Vance’s was. Also, Harris showed up with her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, rather than appear by herself.
“I sort of always expected that the guy would eventually get into the zone, and he’s found his footing, and he appears to be more confident and more comfortable. I think one thing I would like to see more of as he has been making the case on the issues, which I think is strong,” Singleton told the Caller.
“J.D. Vance is fearless and he clearly gets the better of his exchanges with the media, because they come at him aggressively and he knocks down their attacks with precision,” Tim Murtaugh, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told the Caller. “He’s a great asset to the campaign and to President Trump. That’s exactly why the Democrats tried — and failed — to damage him with outrageous lies, because he’s so effective.”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.