Could Ohio's junior senator, J.D. Vance, become Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate?
Sure, why not?
There are at least a dozen names being bandied about as potential running mates for the twice impeached, four times indicted ex-president who will be the nominee of the Republican Party this fall.
Vance, who took office not quite 16 months ago, is most certainly on that list. And making no bones about the fact that he would be happy to join the ticket.
ANALYSIS: A look back at J.D. Vance's first year in office
Good work if you can get it and, if Trump goes down in defeat in November, the vice presidential nominee might end up as the frontrunner for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination.
No wonder so many Republicans are sniffing it out.
On Sunday, the junior senator from Ohio said on Fox News that, while he speaks with Trump often, the subject of being Trump's running mate has never come up.
"Of course, if he asked me, I'd have to think seriously because I think it's really important that he win," Vance said. "The world is on fire and I sort of see Donald Trump as a bit of a fireman."
The Middletown native, who has made a fortune as a venture capitalist and best-selling author, should be taken seriously in the Veepstakes. By no means a lock, but a serious contender.
Here's what he has going for him:
- Vance is 39 years old. On June 2, Trump turns 78. Twice as old.
- Unlike Trump, a criminal defendant who is going to be tethered to a courtroom much of the time this year, Vance is free to bounce around the country campaigning. And getting his name out there for 2028.
- The senator from Ohio has quite a bromance going on with Donald Trump Jr. They reportedly talk or text on a near daily basis; and Junior has Dad's ear on almost everything.
- Total loyalty, the trait Trump values the most. Hard to imagine Vance, who owes his political career to the ex-president, pulling a Mike Pence and telling him to go pound salt as Pence did on Jan. 6.
- And a memo to South Dakota Gov. Kristin Noem, whose veep chances have nearly disappeared: Vance and his family have a pet dog that we guess he most certainly would not shoot.
It's not a bad resume for someone who, in 2015, as Trump was beginning his first presidential campaign, was a celebrity author, going on talk shows and calling Trump an "idiot" and a "loathsome" human being.
ANALYSIS: Why Trump endorsed J.D. Vance, who once called him an 'idiot' (and worse)
Vance got with the MAGA religion right quick when he was locked in a tough primary for the 2022 GOP Senate nomination and Trump pulled him out of the fire with an endorsement and a $3 million shot-in-the-arm from billionaire Peter Thiel.
Vance won the primary, defeated Democrat Tim Ryan in the fall campaign, and has been one of Trump's most consistent — and persistent — cheerleaders in Congress ever since.
And Vance has been issuing mea maxima culpas for his earlier apostasy in dissing Trump.
Most recently, on Fox News:
"From the perspective of 2015, I was wrong," Vance said. "I didn’t think he would be a great president. I was wrong. He was a great president."
And this:
"We have to make the point to a lot of Americans, some of whom didn’t vote for Trump in 2020, that the results were good and that we could have a growing economy and a peaceful world if we bring back Donald Trump for Round 2."
Vance's media staff did not respond to requests for an interview with the senator.
David Niven, a professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, said Vance — along with other running mate hopefuls — is participating in some performance art to attract Trump's attention.
"J.D. Vance is smart enough to know this is the equivalent of a TV game show, which is something Trump understands," Niven said.
"Anyone who becomes Trump's running mate had better be ready to be humiliated by the one at the top of the ticket," Niven said.
Vance has already had a taste of that.
ANALYSIS: Despite indictments, Trump's grip on Ohio Republicans remains strong
After he won the 2022 GOP senate primary, riding the wave of a Trump endorsement, the ex-president had trouble remembering Vance's name.
At a rally in Nebraska, not long after Vance won the primary, Trump got confused and called Vance "J.D. Mandel." Josh Mandel was one of the candidates Vance defeated in the primary.
But, thanks to Trump, Vance had to spend the next two weeks assuring the world that the ex-president actually does know his name.
Being Donald Trump's friend is not always a bed of roses. And, as Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and former Republican strategist, said in his 2018 book, "everything that touches Trump dies."
But Vance is clearly willing to take a chance on that.
