A number of House Republicans are privately bashing former President Trump’s selection of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, warning that the pick will not help — and could hurt — the party’s chances of winning in November.
The Republicans, speaking to The Hill on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, raised concerns about Vance’s foreign policy positions, lack of experience and inability to expand the Republican coalition beyond Trump’s base.
There are, to be sure, plenty of Vance supporters in the House GOP conference, particularly hard-line conservatives — including those in the House Freedom Caucus — who favor the populist, America First perspective that the vice presidential nominee espouses. And the Trump campaign is vigorously defending the pick.
But Republicans who spoke to The Hill — including veteran lawmakers, moderates and Reagan-styled conservatives who support a muscular foreign policy — said a much larger number of their colleagues harbor doubts about Vance.
“He was the worst choice of all the options. It was so bad I didn’t even think it was possible,” one House Republican said. “Anti-Ukraine, more of a populist. He adds nothing to the Trump ticket. He energizes the same people that love Trump.”
“I think if you were to ask many people around this building, 9 out of 10 on our side would say he’s the wrong pick,” a second House Republican said. “He’s the only person who can do serious damage.”
A third House Republican — who said “there is major dissension” to Vance in the conference — argued that if Trump falls short to Vice President Harris in November, Trump’s vice presidential selection will be to blame.
“The prevailing sentiment is if Trump loses, [it’s] because of this pick,” the lawmaker said. “It doesn’t help.”
Harris’s ascension exacerbates electoral concerns
US Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention in Houston, Texas, on July 25, 2024. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The anxiety surrounding Vance grew more pronounced after President Biden withdrew from the 2024 race and threw his support behind Harris, a move that is energizing Democrats, boosting their campaign coffers and turning the political landscape upside down.
“I was concerned the whole time, but now it’s really concerning,” a fourth House Republican said. “It doesn’t make it any easier.”
The ascension of a Black and Asian American woman to the top of the ticket — and the contrast it draws with the Trump-Vance ticket — is one source of anxiety for Republicans who were hoping to see more diversity in their own nominees.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) were at one point floated as candidates for the vice presidential nod, though neither was a finalist.
“He wouldn’t be my first pick,” one of the House Republicans said. “I thought we were going to have a female candidate, but they quickly [dismissed that idea]. … Nikki Haley would’ve been great, but he’s never going to, because she ran against him. … Kristi shot her puppy.”
“That’s a little bit of, I think a problem, when you put in that position because she’s gonna rally women,” a fifth House Republican said of Harris. “And who do you have that can rally women on the [Republican] ticket, is the question.”
‘I’d do the same pick’
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is seen during a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the Federal Bureau of Investigations on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
Trump’s selection of Vance has, nonetheless, energized the GOP base and elevated an heir apparent for the MAGA movement.
And Trump, his campaign and staunchest supporters are pushing back on criticisms of the Vance pick, contending that the ticket will see victory in November.
“President Trump is thrilled with the choice he made with Senator Vance, and they are the perfect team to take back the White House,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Hill in a statement.
Asked Wednesday if he would have picked a different vice presidential nominee if he knew Harris would be at the top of the Democratic ticket, Trump told reporters, “No, I’d do the same pick.”
“He’s doing really well. He’s really caught on,” he added.
Even House Republicans who were not immediate Trump supporters are backing Vance as the vice presidential pick. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the GOP primary, said the names on the ticket must be “simpatico” with each other.
“I think he’s a great pick, because I think he is very much aligned with the president in most of the ways that matter, and can reflect the president,” he said. “The vice president is supposed to be simpatico with the president.”
Expanding the Republican tent
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., watches during the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
But because the first-term senator’s views are largely aligned with Trump’s, some Republicans worry about his ability to appeal to voters who are not already ardent supporters of the former president.
House Republicans say other vice presidential contenders — like Haley, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) — could have helped expand the GOP coalition behind Trump with their more moderate demeanor and toned-down rhetoric.
“It’s not like he’s a bad name, he just doesn’t bring a single voter out that Trump didn’t already have. That’s the problem,” one of the House Republicans said. “Every other option they were considering brought some other kind of voter to the table in some way.”
“Vance brings Trump’s voters out. You know who else brings Trump’s voters out? Trump,” they added. “That’s why a lot of us are scratching our heads.”
One of the House Republicans contrasted the current dynamics to the 2016 election, when Trump’s selection of then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) to be his running mate reassured Republicans skeptical of the former president’s rapid rise and added balance to the ticket.
“I was a little, in ‘16, on the fence, and Pence came in and I go, ‘OK,’” the lawmaker said. “We need someone like that that would grow his base.”
Policy concerns amid short Senate tenure
Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks at a campaign rally at Radford University on July 22, 2024 in Radford, Virginia. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Some House Republicans have also taken issue with Vance’s foreign policy positions — particularly his isolationist stance when it comes to aid for overseas allies.
The Ohio Republican has been a leading voice in the Senate opposing additional aid for Ukraine, voting against the foreign aid package in April that included roughly $60 billion for Kyiv.
Years before that vote, during a podcast interview in 2022, Vance said, “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other,” remarks that are still reverberating in GOP circles today.
A sixth House Republican cited those remarks in knocking Trump’s decision to have him join the ticket.
“Obviously, some of the rhetoric concerns me a little bit,” the lawmaker said. “Some of the rhetoric, I think, has made some folks nervous.”
Vance’s foreign policy stance was in the spotlight this week when the senator was notably absent from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress because, the campaign said, he had “duties to fulfill as the Republican nominee for Vice President.” Netanyahu is set to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.
Harris also missed the prime minister’s speech because she was traveling in Indiana, though she did meet with him Thursday.
One House Republican, nonetheless, characterized Vance skipping the speech as “a problem,” while another was furious with his reasoning for missing it.
“It’s bulls‑‑‑,” the lawmaker said of Vance blaming his absence on campaign travel. “He can set his schedule whatever he wants.”
Other Republicans, meanwhile, are amped up by Vance’s foreign policy perspective, arguing that his view of the world can help change the status quo at a moment where a shift is greatly needed.
“I’m excited about JD Vance, and I agree with his foreign policy, actually, for so many reasons,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), a hard-line conservative member of the House Freedom Caucus. “I think that we need to really examine our foreign policy stance around the globe, from a financial aspect, from an imperialistic aspect, from a history aspect.”
Questions loom about breadth of experience, history of Trump criticism
Vance, 39, has had a meteoric rise in the Republican Party. Widely known for his 2016 bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” the Ohio Republican mounted a bid for Senate in the 2022 cycle, winning the GOP nomination over a crowded primary field before defeating then-Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) in the general election.
Two years later, Trump picked him to be his running mate, putting him in striking distance of the second highest office in the country.
A seventh House Republican questioned the breadth of Vance’s resume, wondering if he has enough experience to hold the office that is a heartbeat away from the presidency.
“I don’t know that he has the experience to step into that job,” the lawmaker said. “He’s experienced — I don’t want to say he’s not experienced and he’s not smart or that I didn’t like the book and his upbringing. … But I still rank other candidates higher, because they have deeper, more tested experience.”
Vance’s previous criticisms of Trump have also caught the eye of some House Republicans.
Vance hammered Trump as unfit during the 2016 campaign before changing his tune after Trump won the election, later becoming one of his most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill.
But during his period of discontent, Vance publicly called Trump “noxious” and “reprehensible,” and, in a private Facebook message, referred to the then-candidate as “America’s Hitler.”
Vance has defended his evolution on Trump, telling CNN in an interview in May, “I was wrong about him.” Trump echoed those sentiments, saying in an interview with Fox News this week, “He didn’t know me.”
The early broadsides, however, have stuck with some House Republicans, further fueling the confusion over Trump’s vice presidential selection.
“He’s incredibly disingenuous. … He called him Hitler, like, yesterday,” one of the Republicans said. “Now he’s the most pro-Trump person in the world. And I just — I don’t trust him.”
Another House Republican questioned why Trump would select Vance considering that history, citing the recent assassination attempt he faced at his rally in Butler, Pa., which left the former president bloodied after a bullet pierced his ear.
“It’s hard for me to understand how the one Republican that has called Trump Hitler somehow became his VP, especially in the aftermath of an assassination attempt where I think any thinking person understands that heated rhetoric can lead to violence by crazy people,” the GOP lawmaker said.
“It blows my mind.”
Updated at 11:38 a.m. EDT