ERIE, Pa. — Early in the afternoon of July 15, 2024, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) left his Cincinnati home under police escort. He was on his way to Milwaukee, where he was to be announced as Donald Trump's running mate.
For the Republican vice presidential nominee, the ensuing six weeks have been a whirlwind of campaign stops that have taken him away from Ohio and across the country.
News 5 caught up with Vance on Wednesday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. He was meeting with voters in the City of Erie, the county seat for the county of the same name whose voters have mirrored the state outcome in the previous two presidential elections.
When discussing the attention a candidate on a national ticket receives, we reminded him of what political consultant Ed Rollins told Ross Perot at the start of Perot's 1992 independent run for the White House. You're about to know what it feels like to be the only fire hydrant at the Westminster Dog Show.
"There’s a lot of truth to it," Vance said with a laugh. "But as Harry S. Truman once said, 'If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen.' I think it’s one of the important things you just have to do. If you can’t pass the crucible of tough media interviews than you can’t be vice president of the United States. You certainly can’t be president of the United States."
Vance then turned to the race for the White House, criticizing the Democratic ticket, which had yet to sit down for a network interview at that point.
"I do think it’s provided an interesting contrast where President Trump and I are willing to go anywhere, talk to anybody, even if it's a hostile interview, whereas Kamala Harris seems to be hiding out from the American people. So, the reason we do it is because we respect the American people. We want to earn their vote. We don’t expect it to just be given to us, and I think that is an important difference between us and Kamala Harris," he said.
Harris and her running mate Tim Walz are conducting their first interview on Thursday, sitting down with CNN during campaigning in Georgia.
Vance's win over Democrat Tim Ryan in the 2022 race to fill the Ohio U.S. Senate seat of the retiring Rob Portman put him in the national spotlight.
At the time, he dismissed the idea of being a potential running mate to the Republican nominee, telling News 5, "Certainly not, I think my wife would kill me and probably a few other people as well."
Reminded of that statement in Erie, he said with a laugh that his wife Usha eventually warmed up to the idea. Although it has not been without incident, with Usha being the subject of racist attacks as a result of her Indian heritage.
"It is a huge adjustment for family, right? I don't feel bad for myself, but I do sometimes feel bad for family because it is a new thing," said Vance. "What's interesting is that my wife, I think over time, really started to lean into it and sort of see it as an opportunity to work on some of the things that we both care about. So, she's actually here with me, she's just one room over here," he said at the campaign stop at a transportation and warehousing company. "Coming out on the campaign trail, having a good time. You know, sometimes I certainly wish the media would focus their attacks on me and not on my family, but it's the game we play, and my wife is pretty tough."
Vance's U.S. Senate staff continues to tend to Ohio concerns while he is out campaigning, but we asked him if he feels the people who elected him are getting shortchanged in this process.
"Well, look, if I win, of course, then certainly we’re going to have to pick a new senator. That’s Mike DeWine’s job, and I don’t think they’re going to be shortchanged at all," Vance said. "And if I lose, we’re going to go back to focusing on the American people’s business.
"I will say Washington does kind of shut down during the summer and fall of an election year. So there’s not like legislation we’d like to be working on that we’re not working on because we’re on the campaign trail. They’re not even in session right now. They won’t be in session for all of October, so I don’t think Ohio’s been shortchanged at all, and certainly if we win we want to make sure Ohio gets the right U.S. Senator to replace me."
This is the first presidential election cycle in decades in which Ohio isn't among the most closely watched states, with former President Trump having carried it by eight points in the last two elections. So how likely is it he will end up campaigning in the Buckeye State?
"I think we feel good about Ohio. I’d like to come in and campaign for Bernie Moreno," he said. "Obviously, because I think it’s important to get Bernie Moreno across the finish line. I think he’s going to make a great United States Senator, so I expect that I will be doing some campaigning in Ohio, but on the presidential cycle we’re focused on Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and that’s where I’m going to spend most of my time."
