(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump named Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance his running mate for the 2024 Republican presidential ticket as the GOP is poised to officially make Trump the party’s nominee at the Republican National Convention.
Vance’s nomination as Trump’s vice president pits him against current Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to appear on the Democratic ticket with President Joe Biden.
At 39, Vance will represent a younger generation in an election that features Trump, 78, and Biden, 81, bringing a counterweight to the Democratic ticket that also includes Harris, 59.
Here is how Vance and Harris stack up against one another on the big issues.
Who is Sen. JD Vance?
Ohio Sen. James David Vance was swept to national prominence by his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” in which he explored the socioeconomic problems confronting his hometown and the cycle of poverty that had entrapped Americans in the Appalachian Mountains, where his mother and her family had their origins.
Vance himself was harshly critical of Trump before and after Trump’s 2016 election win against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, calling him an “idiot” and “America’s Hitler,” among other epithets.
But as Vance geared up to run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2022, he transformed into one of the former president’s most consistent defenders, supporting Trump even when some Senate colleagues declined to do so.
Who is Vice President Kamala Harris?
Harris currently serves as the vice president of the United States. She is the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American person to hold this position.
Harris graduated from Howard University before attending law school at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law.
After Biden’s widely criticized debate performance, some Democrats called for him to step out of the race and allow another Democratic candidate to accept the party’s nomination. Harris was one of the top names being discussed as an alternative to Biden given her role as vice president, but she faces one of the lowest approval ratings of any vice president.
According to a 538 aggregation of polls, almost 50% of Americans disapprove of Harris as vice president, and only 38% approve of her.
Harris, Vance on crime
Having served in public office for less than two years, Vance is a largely untested candidate in the landscape of national politics.
Vance has played down the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He said he “doubted” Mike Pence’s life was in danger despite violent protesters getting within yards of the former vice president as Secret Service agents rushed him out of the Capitol building. Vance has also echoed Trump’s criticisms of the way the Justice Department has prosecuted Jan. 6 rioters, accusing the department of disregarding due process protections.
In February, he declined to criticize Trump for encouraging Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack America’s NATO allies if they failed to increase their defense spending.
Harris has long supported gun control and more progressive criminal justice policies but was criticized in her tenure as California’s attorney general for not investigating shootings by police.
Harris has previously referred to herself as a “progressive prosecutor” and was endorsed by the police union when she was elected San Francisco district attorney. In this election, she beat her former boss, Terence Hallinan, who was viewed as one of the most progressive district attorneys in the nation.
Vance, Harris on abortion
During his time in political office, Vance has opposed abortion access and some LGBTQ+ rights while supporting policies he argues would increase birth rates in the United States, such as making childbirth free and financially incentivizing couples to have children.
While Vance ran for Senate on a staunchly anti-abortion platform, he has somewhat shifted his public stance on the issue.
In a July 7 interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Vance said he agreed with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling dismissing a case challenging the availability of mifepristone, an abortion drug.
“I think it’s important to say that we need to have a conversation in our country about what our abortion policy should be,” he said. “Donald Trump is the pragmatic leader here.”
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign is making abortion policy one of its pillars, with Harris saying “everything is at stake” for reproductive rights in the November election.
“Every person of whatever gender should understand that, if such a fundamental freedom such as the right to make decisions about your own body can be taken, be aware of what other freedoms may be at stake,” Harris said in a joint MSNBC interview with Hadley Duvall, an abortion rights advocate from Kentucky who was raped by her stepfather as a child.
Harris, Vance on border and immigration
Vance’s views on immigration largely echo Trump, saying he opposes “every attempt to grant amnesty” to immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally.
During his 2022 campaign for Senate, Vance ran a political ad saying, “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans,” looking straight into the camera, adding, “With more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.”
Mr. Vance argues that undocumented immigrants are a source of cheap labor that undercuts wages for American-born workers in states like Ohio: “If you cannot hire illegal migrants to staff your hotels, then you have to go to one of the seven million prime-age American men who are out of the labor force and find some way to re-engage them.”
In 2021, Biden tapped Harris to lead the White House effort to tackle the migration challenge at the U.S. southern border and work with Central American nations to address the root causes of the problem.
Harris has also echoed Biden’s views on immigration, who has faced stiff criticism from Republicans over the increased flow of migrants and is hoping to show Americans he’s taking the situation at the border seriously.
