Will winks, nudges and a friendship land J.D. Vance a spot next to Donald Trump on ballot

A person doesn’t run – at least not obviously – for vice president; the choice is up to a party’s presidential nominee.

But a potential vice president (or someone who sees herself or himself in that post) does need to get “mentioned” in connection with the office, if only to turn wheels in the public’s mind, and in a presidential candidate’s.

And that seems to be happening in the case of Ohio’s junior U.S. senator, Cincinnati Republican J.D. (James David) Vance, who will turn 40 on Aug. 2.

National media, including recently the New York Times, have speculated on the likelihood that former president Donald J. Trump, this year’s presumptive GOP presidential nominee, is giving or will give Vance, a native of Butler County’s Middletown, a close look as a potential running mate.

J.D. and Donald Jr.

What’s more, the newspaper reported that a significant factor in Vance’s standing with Trump is the Ohio senator’s friendship with the ex-president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. (which calls to mind the old saying that if you tell me who your friends are, I will tell you what you are).

More:Trump to hold Cincinnati fundraiser with Sen. J.D. Vance amid vice president rumors

But, to a degree, that’s unfair to Vance.

The junior Mr. Trump got where he got because of an accident of birth.

Vance, on the other hand, got where he got mainly because of the pure grit that helped Vance claw himself out of a tough childhood, to the U.S. Marine Corps; college (Ohio State; Yale Law); best-selling authorship (“Hillbilly Elegy”); and on to the Senate in 2022, when Vance defeated then-U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a suburban Warren Democrat, by drawing 53% of the statewide vote to Ryan’s 47%.

Vance’s is a remarkable rise, but not without glaring contradictions.

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, Vance was among his fiercest critics. But Vance eventually relented. And in 2022, Trump endorsed Vance for the Senate.

Now, the junior senator from Ohio is one of the ex-president’s strongest congressional allies, notably – but not just – on foreign policy, especially on the question of American support of Ukraine in defending itself against Russia.

Vance favors a pivot toward Asia – i.e., China – and away from Europe as the focus of American diplomacy and defense. Bystanders have sometimes confused that with isolationism, which it’s not, although no matter in Ohio: Draw a north-south line through Ohio’s center, and to the west, isolationism was a thread running through Ohio GOP politics, and arguably still is.

What does all this mean to Ohioans?

From this vantage point, as to meat-and-potatoes Ohio matters, it appears that Vance plays well with others, including the state’s senior senator, Cleveland Democrat Sherrod Brown.

For example, Vance, along with Brown, has been an outspoken advocate for victims of the Norfolk Southern derailment disaster in Columbiana County’s East Palestine. Coincidentally or not, the region is rock-ribbed Republican. Vance has also co-sponsored legislation with such Senate Democrats as New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan (to promote in-home nursing care) and Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse (to end a corporate-merger tax break).

George Jaskiw:'Highly' intelligent J.D. Vance's spiteful position on Ukraine a danger to the world

As previously noted, three vice president were born in Ohio, though none was an Ohio resident when elected vice president:

• Democrat Thomas Hendricks, born in 1819 near Zanesville, was an Indiana resident when elected in 1884 as Grover Cleveland's running mate.
• Republican Charles W. Fairbanks, born in 1852 in Union County's Unionville Center, also an Indiana resident, was elected vice president in 1904 on Theodore Roosevelt’s ticket.
• A Marietta native, Republican Charles G. Dawes, was an Illinois resident when elected vice president in 1924 as Calvin Coolidge's running mate.

At least in modern times, a person doesn’t so much run for vice president as signal – typically with winks, nudges and “mentions” – that she or he is interested and available.

Strategically, at his writing, Donald Trump (according to polling) would carry Ohio this November no matter who his running mate will be. But given Trump’s age (77) and that of incumbent Democrat Joseph R. Biden (81), voters everywhere will naturally look over candidates’ vice presidential running mates.

And J.D. Vance, age 39 at this writing, is brainy, apparently healthy – and very ambitious.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com