Trump Running Mate JD Vance’s Views On Foreign Policy & Abortion Spark Debate

After former President Donald Trump announced that Sen. JD Vance would be his vice presidential running mate, the first-term senator has quickly found himself in the national spotlight.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, while promoting his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, Vance was a vocal critic of Trump. However, after winning a Senate seat in Ohio in 2022, he has transformed into one of Trump’s staunchest MAGA allies.

As a senator, Vance is known for his “America First” stance, skeptical of U.S. involvement in global affairs like the war in Ukraine, and opposing bipartisan government funding deals.

In his 18 months in the Democratic-controlled Senate, Vance has introduced 57 bills or resolutions, none of which have become law, according to the legislative tracking website Congress.gov.

He has co-sponsored many more, two of which reached President Joe Biden‘s desk. These aimed to overturn Biden’s consumer and environmental regulations, but Biden vetoed both.

Vance has also co-sponsored symbolic resolutions adopted by the chamber, such as a resolution celebrating the U.S. flag and the Pledge of Allegiance.

The vice presidential nominee has consistently voted with the party’s right wing against most of Biden’s legislative priorities, judicial nominees and bipartisan government funding deals supported by Republican leaders in both chambers.

Vance’s potential rise to the vice presidency would be a setback for Republicans who support strong U.S. involvement in world affairs, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who plans to prioritize this even after stepping down from leadership next year.

Vance has strongly opposed aid to Ukraine, advocating for a peace deal where Ukraine cedes land to Russia to end the war, consistently dismissing concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin would continue his territorial expansion through Europe if he gains control of Ukraine.

And while Vance continues to support Israel, he has broadly opposed interventionist U.S. foreign policies.

Like most Republicans, Vance has consistently voted against Democratic legislation to codify abortion rights, restore Roe v. Wade protections, establish federal rights to contraception and protect in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Vance opposed and campaigned against last year’s Ohio ballot initiative to protect abortion access, calling its passage “a gut punch.”

He has also opposed tougher gun laws and clashed with Democrats over the controversial issue.

However, one major bipartisan effort Vance has led with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is the Railway Safety Act, which he championed following last year’s deadly train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

During his brief time in the Senate, Vance has consistently echoed Trump’s claims about the 2020 election’s legitimacy, which Trump has made central to his campaign.

Unlike some other vice presidential contenders, Vance was not in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, and did not face the decision of voting to certify Biden’s victory.

In a February 2024 interview with ABC News, Vance endorsed the view that the 2020 election was problematic and said Congress should have considered competing slates of electors.

“That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, [had] a lot of problems in 2020,” Vance said in February.

Vance’s selection also means that both members of the GOP ticket have helped raise funds for individuals involved in the political violence of Jan. 6.

On the one-year anniversary of the Capitol attack, Vance falsely claimed that “dozens” of people “who haven’t even been charged with a crime yet” were being held in “D.C. prisons” awaiting pretrial. When in reality, everyone held in pretrial custody had been charged and ordered by a judge.