Middletown, Ohio - Ohio Senator JD Vance is now running alongside Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race, but can he help the former president take back the White House from the Democratic Party?

Vance shot to the national spotlight this year while participating in a highly publicized race that some have labeled Trump's "veepstakes."

Along with a handful of other self-described MAGA Republicans, including fellow Senators Marco Rubio and Tim Scott, Vance has been aggressively pushing his allegiance to Trump, even as the former president faced tons of bad press surrounding mounting legal woes that threatened his re-election efforts.

Vance's hard work finally paid off on July 15, when Trump surprised the party by announcing on his Truth Social platform that he had officially chosen Vance to be his running mate.

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The news came only hours before Trump was scheduled to attend the Republican National Convention, where he made his first public appearance after a gunman nearly killed him during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

Later that night, Vance joined Trump on stage at the convention, marking his first public appearance as the GOP vice presidential nominee.

James Donald Bowman was born in Middletown, Ohio, on August 2, 1984, where he also grew up, until graduating from high school.

Over the years, he changed his last name several times, before settling on Vance – the last name of his grandparents, Jim and Bonnie Vance, who helped raise him.

After high school, Vance joined the Marines and served in Iraq as a corporal with the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.

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He then went on to graduate from Ohio State University with a degree in political science and philosophy before attending Yale Law School.

During his time at Yale, he met his future wife and the mother of their three children, Usha Chilukuri. He also began writing his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which told the story of his upbringing in Ohio. The book was later published in 2016 to widespread acclaim.

By 2021, Vance began using the success of his memoir, and Trump's subsequent rise in popularity, to spark his career in politics.

With the help of Trump's endorsement, Vance was elected senator of Ohio in 2022, and he aggressively used the position to play defense for the former president.

During the 2016 presidential race, as Trump ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton, Vance was one of a handful of prominent politicians who referred to themselves as "Never Trump" Republicans.

He was highly critical of Trump in countless interviews and speeches, admonishing him for his racist rhetoric, slamming him for his "reprehensible" remarks on immigration, and urging Christian voters not to support him.

Vance has even referred to Trump as "America's Hitler," once described him as "cultural heroin," and claimed that his racism and xenophobia helped his popularity with MAGA grow.

But following the popularity of his book, Hillbilly Elegy, in 2016, and Trump's election win, Vance sought to rebrand himself into a staunch MAGA Republican.

He has scrubbed any traces of critical statements about Trump from his social media pages and has apologized profusely to MAGA supporters for his remarks.

During an interview with CNN back in June, Vance admitted to making the statements, adding, "I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy."

Similar to Trump, Vance has pitched himself as an "American first" candidate who promises to "save" the country, which he believes is in decline resulting from policy positions held by the Democratic Party.

Many of his positions relate to "culture war" issues and are aimed at dismantling agendas designed to address historic injustices targeting particular groups.

Despite being Ivy League educated, Vance gave a speech titled "The Universities are the Enemy" in 2021, in which he argued that colleges are "hostile institutions" that do "research that gives credibility to some of the most ridiculous ideas." He vowed to "aggressively attack the universities in this country."

Vance has expressed similar positions held by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who claims "wokeness" and liberal ideologies, such as "critical race theory" and LGBTQ+ related subjects, are being taught in schools to "indoctrinate" students. He believes the government should ban the teaching of such topics.

In June, Vance shared in a social media post that he believes DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, are "racism, plain and simple," adding that "it's time to outlaw it nationwide."

Vance has been a vocal opponent to the US continuing to provide aid to Ukraine during their conflict with Russia. In a podcast interview back in 2022 with conservative host Steve Bannon, Vance confessed, "I've got to be honest with you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other."

But on the subject of Israel, he has been a vocal proponent of continuing to provide military assistance amid the ongoing assault on Gaza.

In a since-deleted social media post from 2016, Vance shared, "Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this, I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us."

Vance's stance on the issue has since come around to mirror that of Trump's, who has vowed to enact the largest deportation effort in American history on the first day of his presidency.

In 2022, while campaigning for Senate, Vance ran on the issue, telling voters that Joe Biden's immigration policies are "killing Ohioans" and had resulted in "illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country."

Most recently, Vance gave his stamp of approval on Trump's anti-immigrant message, when he told a crowd during a rally in Nevada that immigrants should "start packing" their bags because Trump "is coming back into office!"

Over the years, Vance, who is a conservative Christian, has given contradictory answers about where he stands on abortion. During a podcast interview in 2022, Vance boldly stated, "I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally."

But that same year, during a Q&A he gave while running for Senate, Vance said, "I'd like it to be primarily a state issue." He added, "I think it's fine to sort of set some minimum national standard," but did not define what kind of standard he supports.

In recent months, Trump has navigated away from discussion of a national ban, and helped write a recently adopted party platform stating that abortion access should be left up to the states.

Vance has been very open about his opposition to same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ+ related issues, citing his Christian faith.

In 2022, prior to winning his Senate seat, he told the conservative group Mission: America that had he been in office, he would have voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, arguing that he believed "the religious liberty piece of this is very bad."

Vance also introduced the Protect Children's Innocence Act, which sought to criminalize any and all forms of gender-affirming care for minors and prohibit schools from teaching about it. The bill has been heavily criticized by LGBTQ+ rights advocates, who say none of the procedures listed are available to minors.

Immediately after Trump chose Vance to be his running mate, a number of past interviews and comments he made over the years resurfaced, unveiling his prior hate for Trump and contradictions with policy positions he now claims to hold.

Vance has also done a questionable job handling the media and public and has joined his boss in focusing attacks of their rival, Kamala Harris, on her race and gender, which many critics have deemed a losing strategy.

Trump and Vance have been aggressively doing damage control to combat the bad press – so far, to no avail.

Excitement among voters and Harris' poll numbers continue to rise, while Trump's campaign is struggling to deal with the new infusion of energy on the Democratic side.

Things have gotten so bad that there have been rumors that Trump has been regretting his VP decision, and may be considering swapping Vance out.

While Trump hasn't given any indication of this, he did throw Vance under the bus recently when he claimed the role of vice president has "virtually no impact" and "makes no difference."

"You can have a vice president who's outstanding in every way – and I think JD is," Trump explained. "But you're not voting that way, you're voting for the president."