J.D. Vance Offers Democrats an Opening

Nate Silver: “That’s not to say Vance is the worst pick Trump might have made — at least not when he was reportedly also considering people like Victor Ramaswamay who had no elected experience at all. There was a lot of money spent in the Ohio race and Vance should be reasonably well-vetted. I have no doubt that he’s a smart guy. He’s certainly much younger (39) than any of the other three candidates on the presidential ballot.”

“Still, a fully functional Democratic campaign might be able to make some hay of this pick, perhaps by treating Vance as a cipher about whom little is known but who has been endorsed by right-wing groups like the authors of Project 2025. Democrats had success in running against these sorts of candidates in 2022, particularly Blake Masters in Arizona, who like Vance has ties to the venture capitalist Peter Thiel.”

“The question is whether the Democratic campaign is firing on anything resembling all cylinders right now, spending much of its time in a defensive posture stage-managing Biden’s appearances and fending off the intraparty revolt against him.”

New York Times: Biden calls J.D. Vance a Trump “clone” as Democrats label him an extremist.