When former President Donald Trump named Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential nominee on Monday, it was a projection of confidence. Vance, whose meteoric political rise began when he was elected to the Senate in 2022, is well known for his pugilistic defenses of Trump, his occasional embrace of populist rhetoric, and his conservative views on social issues. He is a firebrand with ties to right-leaning tech moguls—including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel—and a knack for defending the former president.

Trump’s choice of Vance is not an entreaty to voters on the fence but a signal to all Americans, and especially Republicans, that the GOP remade in Trump’s image will extend beyond 2024.

“It is hard to imagine a cleaner break from the pre-Trump Republican Party than the Trump-Vance [ticket],” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist. “[Trump] is reaffirming and reinforcing his vision of the party and seeing it reflected all the way down.”

In some respects, the Republican presidential ticket comprises two men with very different life experiences and paths to power. At 39 years old, Vance is exactly half Trump’s age. Rather than a scion of a wealthy New York real estate mogul, Vance is a child of the Midwest who earned notoriety—and a movie adaptation of his life—for his autobiography depicting his family’s struggles with poverty and drug addiction. When Trump was running for president in 2016, Vance harshly criticized the candidate, privately worrying he could be an American Hitler. But Vance has embraced Trumpism with a convert’s zeal, and the similarities between the two men at the top of the ticket now outweigh the differences.

Vance will not necessarily assist Trump electorally; he may appeal to white, blue-collar workers, but as conservative writer Jonah Goldberg noted to NPR, “The people who love Vance most are already in love with Trump.” Instead, his selection is an ideological marker akin to Bill Clinton tapping fellow young Southerner Al Gore in 1992 as a way of reinforcing his “New Democrat” message.

“A J.D. Vance nomination is not about picking up voters,” Republican commentator Erick Erickson wrote on X on Monday. “It is about securing legacy. He gives intellectual voice to MAGA.”

Perhaps most significant is Vance’s steadfastness as an........

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