Before settling on his new running mate, Donald Trump was reportedly worried about something specific: whether his choice would be seen as too far to the right on abortion rights. The Republican realized that the issue has been a real problem for his party, and he apparently feared the impact on his 2024 candidacy.
NBC News quoted a source close to Trump in March saying, “He’s concerned it will have a drag on the ticket if they’re seen as holding too staunch a position.”
With this in mind, the former president appears to have made the wrong choice. Sen. JD Vance isn’t just a far-right opponent of abortion rights; the Ohio Republican also has publicly endorsed a national ban, supports enforcement of the Comstock Act, had a campaign website that described him as “100 percent pro-life” (under a headline that read, “END ABORTION”) and endorsed his home state’s six-week ban.
What’s more, Talking Points Memo ran a related report, noting that the Biden administration finalized new regulations under HIPAA that limited law enforcement access to medical records tied to reproductive health. Eight Republican senators pushed back against the administration’s efforts — and Vance was one of the eight.
The word “staunch” keeps coming to mind.
But as Politico reported this week, Vance is hoping voters don’t dwell too much on his views and positions when it comes to reproductive rights, and will instead focus on Trump’s leave-it-to-the-states approach.
“I’m the vice presidential nominee and not the presidential nominee, and if I want my views on abortion to dominate the Republican party then I run for president. And I didn’t and I haven’t. Donald Trump ran for president,” Vance said. “Obviously as a member of the campaign I’m going to support it, which is an emphasis on states making the decision, having a respect for the will of the voters decide what local abortion policy will be.”
In other words, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee isn’t denying his far-right views on abortion rights so much as he’s arguing that his far-right views on abortion rights aren’t especially relevant because he won’t be at the top of his party’s ticket.
At first blush, that might sound vaguely reasonable. Throughout American history, when there have been differences between running mates on the same party’s ticket, it’s the candidate at the top who makes the final call about the prevailing position. But a lingering question hangs overhead: If voters return Trump to the White House and he were unable to complete his term for whatever reason, Vance would be elevated to the Oval Office. Would he stick to Trump’s far-right position, or his own even-further-to-the-right position? Or put another way, the senator would have people believe he’d only be the vice president. And while that’s true, (a) vice presidents often have influence over the administration’s agenda, especially when their presidents are indifferent toward governing and public policy; and (b) vice presidents sometimes become presidents. For its part, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team said in a statement: “JD Vance is telling voters not to believe their own eyes and ears when he calls to ban abortion nationwide, rejects exceptions for rape or incest, and compares abortion to slavery. Voters aren’t buying his pathetic excuses — they know that the Trump-Vance ticket is all in on Project 2025, and that the only way to stop them is by voting for Kamala Harris this November.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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