News guidance: In recent days, Trump has begun calling on donors and advisers to weigh in on Vance’s approval, but he has come under pressure from the GOP campaigns of Josh Mandel and Jane Timken, who tried to prevent him from approving it. reported NBC News.
Trump’s advisers say the former president sees an opportunity to advance Vance’s campaign with an endorsement. Vance is currently in third place in a recent poll, according to NBC. NBC was the first to report support for Trump.
What they say: “Like some others, JD Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he understands now,” the former president said in a statement.
“In the Greater Ohio state, the most qualified candidate ready to win in November is JD Vance. We can’t play games. The point is to win,” Trump added.
The big picture: Vance announced last summer that he was trying to succeed retired Sen. Rob Portman.
“Vance was a strong critic of Trump in 2016, but he became a supporter in 2020.”[I]”If I really care about these people and the things I say I care about, I just have to suck it up and support it,” Vance told TIME’s Molly Ball. Vance has also touted the warm words he received from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and MAGA’s top personality, Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA. The author of “Hillbilly Elegy” has put cultural wars, high technology and economic populism at the forefront of his campaign, writes Axios’s Mike Allen.
Go deeper: A race to watch 2022
