On July 15, 2024 local time, former US President Donald Trump has selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate for the 2024 election. This is another tough statement by the Republican Party's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) faction, which is bound to shake up this already unprecedented election year.

Vance’s credentials are impeccable: he served in the Marine Corps, has a degree from Yale Law School, and has deep connections in Silicon Valley. He is the most representative figure of “America First” populism and a potential promoter of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

If Trump is elected, Vance, who will turn 40 in August, would become one of the youngest vice presidents in U.S. history, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Crypto Ally + Bitcoin Holder?

What’s exciting to the crypto community is that Vance could be a pro-crypto ally.

J.D. Vance disclosed in his mandatory annual report for the 2022 calendar year, filed in October 2023, that as of 2022, he owned between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of Bitcoin, which he held through Coinbase.

Vance also has accounts at brokerage firms Robinhood and Charles Schwab.

The vice presidential candidate has yet to file a financial disclosure for 2023. His current estimated net worth is at least $5 million and at most $10.5 million, according to Cincinnati.com.

The Ohio Republican has been reportedly supportive of the cryptocurrency industry and critical of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Last year, Vance and other Republican lawmakers wrote to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler expressing concerns about inaccurate statements made by the agency in its lawsuit against cryptocurrency startup Debt Box.

Vance also criticized the Canadian government's decision to freeze the bank accounts of people associated with the 2022 Ottawa Truckers protest. He posted at the time: "This is why cryptocurrencies are booming, if you have the wrong political views, the regime will cut off your access to banking services."

Vance is also a member of the Senate Banking Committee and, as Politico reported last month, is drafting a bill to regulate the industry and plans to introduce it in July. On the House side, lawmakers passed a bill in May to comprehensively regulate cryptocurrencies. The bill, called FIT21, would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) more power and funding to oversee cryptocurrency spot markets and "digital commodities," especially Bitcoin.

According to Politico, Vance plans to revamp FIT21 and take a friendlier approach to the industry.

What does this mean for crypto voters?

In the most direct sense, two leading members of the U.S. presidential candidate field have explicitly voiced their support for the industry—a first in history.

“Former President Trump made it clear that supporting our homegrown digital asset entrepreneurs would be a top priority if he wins a second term,” said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, on Monday. “Senator Vance is an emerging voice for crypto legislation that supports innovation and is an ideal candidate to lead the Republican crypto movement. We are pleased to see that support for crypto is becoming a litmus test for political candidates.”

Enemy becomes ally? He once publicly criticized Trump

Vance's political stances have changed significantly over the years:

He denounced Trump as "America's Hitler" in 2016, and during an interview with Charlie Rose to promote his work Hillbilly Elegy, Vance called himself a "Never Trumper," saying of the incoming president: "I never liked him."

“I can’t stand Trump,” he told NPR that year. He also wrote an op-ed for The New York Times titled, “Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

Later, Vance became one of the former president's most loyal followers, and his political stance seemed to change largely in line with the Republican base.

Silicon Valley connections become a "free ride" for politics

Vance, 39, who spent many years as a venture capitalist, has spent more of his career in business than in politics.

According to public information, after graduating from Yale Law School in 2013, Vance lived in San Francisco for a while and worked at Mithril Capital, which was co-founded by Peter Thiel and Ajay Royan, former CEO of PayPal and a long-time Republican funder.

He also spent time in Washington, D.C., working at former AOL CEO Steve Case’s venture capital firm, Revolution LLC, on a project to expand capital opportunities to towns like Middletown, Ohio, where Vance was born.

“JD Vance has become a leading voice for people across the country who feel left behind, so he’s the perfect person to help us expand Rise Of The Rest,” Keys said in 2017.

It was also during this period that Vance published a memoir in 2016, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and a Culture in Crisis (Hillbilly Elegy mentioned above), which became a New York Times bestseller and made him famous.

He reportedly launched his own fund, Narya Capital, in 2020, backed by Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Eric Schmidt and Scott Dorsey, among others, with the Cincinnati-based firm set up to bring capital from the East Coast into states like Ohio for investment.

Vance then entered politics and in 2022 won a U.S. Senate seat representing Ohio.

That's largely thanks to Trump's support, according to the Wall Street Journal. He has cultivated a staunch populist image in Washington, opposed to foreign engagement and trade deals, and forged a friendship with Donald Trump Jr., which has given him an advantage in the election.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Vance's experience in Silicon Valley enabled him to establish relationships with a number of technology entrepreneurs and helped some of them get "closer" to Trump.

After Trump left office, Vance's interactions with the former president became more intense, beginning with a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in the spring of 2021, along with venture capitalist Peter Thiel. According to a mutual friend, Vance was the only senator to oppose the NATO-backed no-fly zone over Ukraine, and his comments caught the attention of Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

When Vance began attacking the "neocons" of the Republican Party, Trump Jr. began defending him in public, including with his father. Within weeks, Trump Sr. endorsed Vance to ensure his victory in the May 2022 primary, and both Trump Jr. and Vance say they have become close personal friends.

The young and promising Vance is likely to help boost the Republican Party's appeal in Midwestern states, including working-class voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and other states.

"Trump needs a vice president with innovative ideas and the ability to express them to every American voter, and Senator JD Vance fits that bill perfectly," said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). "Now is the time to unite our country, and we are eager to expand our majority in the House and use this opportunity to Make America Great Again."

References:

Wall Street Journal: Trump Picks J.D. Vance as 2024 Running Mate

雅虎财经：How J.D. Vance’s Silicon Valley connections helped launch him into Trump's VP slot