Donald Trump picks Sen. JD Vance as VP running mate

Former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance as his pick for vice president on Monday.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social while the Republican National Convention is going on in Milwaukee.

"J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond," Trump said.

RELATED STORY| Who is JD Vance, Trump's pick for vice president?

Vance is a relative newcomer to politics. He was elected in 2022 as the junior U.S. senator from Ohio.

Before politics, Vance attended Yale Law School and worked at a corporate law firm before moving to San Francisco to become a venture capitalist.

Vance met his wife Usha at Yale. She is an attorney who worked at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP until Monday. Shortly after Vance was announced as Trump's VP candidate, the firm confirmed that she had left her position.

Vance wrote "Hillbilly Elegy," a best-selling memoir-turned-Netflix movie about working-class America. He was a frequent critic of Donald Trump, telling Charlie Rose in 2016, "I never liked him."

Those feelings appeared to change when Trump won the White House. Vance stopped the attacks and eventually apologized. By 2022, Trump was campaigning for Vance.

The highly-anticipated news of Trump's VP pick came following an assassination attempt against the former president at a Pennsylvania rally over the weekend.

RELATED STORY | Republican delegates officially nominate Trump for president

Trump planned to attend the RNC despite Saturday's attack. He told the Washington Examiner he had planned an "extremely tough" RNC speech for Thursday, but has since changed it to be "more unifying" following the weekend's tragic events.

In the attack, Trump said a bullet struck his ear. One spectator at the rally, Corey Comperatore, was killed as he shielded his family from the gunfire. Two other attendees were critically injured but are now in stable condition.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Monday that the Secret Service would provide an "appropriate level of security" to Vance.