Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate, J.D. Vance

MADISON, Wisconsin — Before he became a best-selling author, a U.S. senator, or the Republican nominee for vice president, J.D. Vance worked as a legal clerk for U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

“So I guess I'll claim a little bit of J.D. Vance fame,” Cornyn remarked Tuesday during a brief interview at the Republican National Convention. Former President Donald Trump had announced Vance as his running mate the previous day.

Known as James Hamel at the time, Vance clerked for Cornyn on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the summer of 2011 while he was a student at Yale Law School. Clerks assist Cornyn with his committee duties, including reviewing judicial nominations and overseeing the judiciary. Prior to his Senate career, Cornyn served as Texas attorney general and as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

In a Fox Business interview on Monday night, Cornyn described Vance as “a smart guy, incredibly well spoken.”

Cornyn praised Trump's selection of Vance as a running mate, saying he “represents the next generation of Republican leaders.”

“I'm excited that the president would think not only about his own election but also about what the next generation looks like,” Cornyn said in the Tribune interview.

Vance joined the Senate in 2023 after gaining fame with his autobiography, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book, which detailed his upbringing in rural Appalachia, became a national bestseller. He also served in the Marines before attending college. After clerking for Cornyn, Vance clerked for U.S. District Judge David Bunning, an appointee of President George W. Bush. He later worked in venture capital with Mithril Capital, a firm founded by Trump supporter Peter Thiel.

Although he is now a staunch Trump supporter, Vance has criticized the former president in the past. He once identified as a “never Trump guy,” calling Trump “reprehensible,” a “cynical asshole,” and “cultural heroin.”

Since then, Vance has aligned himself closely with Trump in the Senate. Cornyn stated that now that the party’s nominee is selected, Republicans should move past internal divisions.

“If Republicans are divided, it does nothing but help our adversaries. So I think we need to put aside any of those differences,” Cornyn said when asked about Vance’s past criticisms of Trump. “Now the primaries are over and we need to be unified behind our ticket.”

Cornyn has a personal rule against getting involved in primaries, though he said early in the cycle that he felt “Trump’s time has passed him by.” He eventually endorsed Trump after his primary win in New Hampshire.

“I know we've been through a bumpy primary season but actually primaries, I think, are very important,” Cornyn told Texas delegates at the RNC. “What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”

Choosing Vance, with his strong support of Trump, marks a strategic shift from Trump’s 2016 ticket. That year, he selected former Indiana Governor Mike Pence to lend establishment credibility to his campaign. Pence and Trump had a falling out after Trump supporters, chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The RNC's tone has shifted significantly since 2016. Trump now enjoys much stronger support across the party. Delegates responded coldly to remnants of pre-Trump Republicanism, which focused on strong defense spending. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had a major fallout with Trump after the January 6 insurrection, was so loudly booed while presenting Kentucky’s votes for Trump on Monday night that he was unintelligible.

Democrats criticized Vance as an ideological extension of Trump, whom they often call an existential threat to democracy.

“This is someone who supports banning abortion nationwide while criticizing exceptions for rape and incest survivors; railed against the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for millions with preexisting conditions; and has admitted he wouldn’t have certified the free and fair election in 2020,” President Joe Biden’s campaign said in a statement after Vance’s selection was announced.