J.D. Vance pick unnerves GOP's business elite, thrills populists
he Ohio senator leads a GOP faction sharply breaking with party ideology on free markets, trade and other policies
By Jeff Stein
July 15, 2024 at 7:03 p.m. EDT
Former president Donald Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee reflects the ascendancy of the party’s populist economic wing — and the choice is alarming traditional conservative policymakers and elite donors who opposed the pick.
Vance has suggested a break with the Republican Party’s economic orthodoxy of the last several decades on a range of policy issues, including unions, antitrust, trade and taxes, even making comments that appear at odds with Trump, who already scrambled the party’s ideology.
The first-term senator has embraced a more active role for government intervention in the economy than most Republicans, emerging as a leader of a minority faction among GOP senators that also includes Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.). Vance has praised President Biden’s antitrust crusader at the Federal Trade Commission, called for a higher minimum wage and even once called for raising taxes on corporations — all positions anathema to conservatives. The departure is particularly stark compared with the vice president of Trump’s first term, Mike Pence, who branded himself as an adherent of Ronald Reagan by embodying GOP orthodoxy on issues ranging from deficits to taxes, or former House speaker Paul D. Ryan, another GOP vice-presidential nominee known for his free-market orthodoxy.
SNIP
Pence is now tied to a conservative think tank working to counter the influence of Vance and his allies on economic policy. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was also opposed to Vance, pushing North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who espouses more traditional Republican economic views, according to two other people with knowledge of the matter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. (Murdoch’s preference for Burgum and opposition to Vance was first reported by NOTUS.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/07/15/vance-trump-economy-gop/
Trump's skills are in marketing and that is all this may amount to but the reality is, that Vance would be a heartbeat away from the presidency. I have to wonder who he will appeal to the most. He is also on board for a radical stance against abortions, so we'll see how far a reach he may have outside of MAGA.
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