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Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance has responded to rumors and reports that he is one of the top-tier candidates former President Donald Trump is considering as his running mate.
In a Thursday interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Vance, who is serving his first term, said he has yet to be formally contacted by Trump’s team but that he’s open to consideration.
“Well, Laura, I have actually never spoken to the president about V.P. Speculation. My simple answer is I want to help him however I can. If he asks me, of course I would think seriously about it. It would be a great honor,” Vance began.
“I also am happy to support the agenda in the United States Senate, and regardless, Laura, you have to remember my job is to serve the people of Ohio. Whether it’s supporting Trump’s agenda in the Senate or serving in some other role, we have got to bring good manufacturing jobs and prosperity to the people of Ohio and the American heartland,” he continued.
“For 40 years bipartisan consensus to ship jobs overseas to bring unchecked migration. Trump stopped that. And the real question for the Republican party is whether we follow that lead and double down on that winning agenda or do we try to go back to the old ways and, unfortunately, Laura, as you know as well as I do, there is a critical component of the old guard of the Republican party that wants to go back to the old ways, more immigration, more war, less good wages for American workers,” Vance said.
He added: “Thank god Trump is there to push back against it.”
WATCH:
HUGE: Trump ally Sen. J.D. Vance talks about being his VP. pic.twitter.com/RccM7lWCCs
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) April 12, 2024
Meanwhile, Kellyanne Conway, a contributor to Fox News, predicted that Trump would make “monster gains” in support from Hispanic voters in November and urged him to choose a person of color for his running mate.
During a segment on Fox’s “Outnumbered,” the Fox panel attacked President Joe Biden for his attempts to court Latinos, calling him a panderer after a February New York Times-Siena College poll found that Trump leads Biden by six points among Latino voters.
Conway claimed that the influx of migrants from the southern border and the COVID-19 lockdown will help to sway more Hispanic voters towards Trump in the 2024 elections.
“Look, every way you look at it, Hispanics have so many reasons to dump Biden. Harris. The main one is the border. How cynical of an entire Democratic Party to believe that in the nine years since Donald Trump elevated into international consciousness his view on illegal immigration. Build the wall. Be fair to the people here, America first,” Conway said.
“Nine years later, the Democrats still think that attacking Donald Trump on the border is going to get them Hispanic vote. Hispanics are also upset that they are hostile to religion, that they masked up their kids and kept them home for the better part of two school years. The economic upward mobility that is being lost to them. So I think that Donald Trump’s going to have a monster gains among Hispanics, and I think it’s part of why he should pick a person of color as his VP,” she added.
Conway, a Republican pollster who played a key role in helping guide Trump’s 2016 campaign to victory and subsequently held a high-ranking position in his White House, spoke last month about the 2024 Veepstakes.
In a guest post for The New York Times, Conway stated that when determining what should be Trump’s “most important” question regarding a running mate for 2024, the question “Who?” is less significant than “Why?”
“In other words, the individual should complement, not complicate, his America First record and vision and recognize the difference between loyalty-as-tenacity (yes) and loyalty-as-obsequiousness (no),” Conway wrote.