Former President Donald Trump will take a break from lashing out in court to campaign in Cincinnati this May, with a little help from Senate Republican and Middletown native, J.D. Vance.
According to an invitation obtained by NBC news, Vance has been billed as the "special guest" for a May 15 "lunch discussion" fundraiser at an unknown location in Cincinnati. The $50,000-per-ticket event will be headlined by Trump, who faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in hush money payments toward adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
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While Trump's campaign against President Joe Biden has been on hold during his trial, rumors over who he will select as his running mate have started to narrow in on Vance. CNN
reported in late March that sources said Trump "appeared fixated" on Vance as a possible candidate, though the
Hillbilly Elegy author recently told "
Fox News Sunday " that he's "never spoken to [Trump] about being vice president.”
CityBeat did not receive a response from Vance's team about the rumors by press time.
Vance's views on Trump have evolved greatly since 2016 when he described himself as a “never Trump guy" in an
interview with Charlie Rose. “I never liked him,” he told Rose at the time. Vance also
once tweeted , "My god what an idiot," in reference to Trump leading up to the 2016 race. Other since-deleted tweets from Vance refer to Trump as “noxious” and “reprehensible.” [content-3] Vance went on to support Trump in the 2020 race against Biden and sought his endorsement in 2021 when Vance ran to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Rob Portman.
“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,” Vance told Fox News that July. “And I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016, because I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy. I think he was a good president, I think he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak.”
Moving past Vance's previous slams,
Trump endorsed Vance's Senate bid , helping the first-time political candidate defeat Democratic opponent Tim Ryan with 53.1% of the vote to Ryan's 46.9%.
Trump will be expected to make his VP pick before the Republican National Convention, which starts July 15. [content-2]
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