On July 15, 2024, Donald Trump announced that J.D. Vance would serve as running mate for his presidential campaign. 

Vance, a U.S. Senator from Ohio, is best known for his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which exploited the stories of people living in rural Appalachia and framed poverty as a moral failing.

In response, the Florida Democratic Party has issued the following statement:

“J.D. Vance built his career around insulting rural Americans and the working class, and choosing him as a running mate shows how out-of-touch Trump and the Republican Party are with Americans,” said FDP Chair Nikki Fried.

“While Republicans advance their extreme agenda through Project 2025, Florida Democrats are talking to voters from Pensacola to Key West about how Democrats are working to make their lives better — from solving our affordability crisis to holding our government accountable to the people. From now until election day, we’ll illustrate how damaging a Trump–Vance presidency would be and why we have to re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November.”