Chicago – July 17, 2024
The Senate is narrowly divided and Democrats hold a slim majority. But there’s no need for Ohio Sen. JD Vance, whom former President Donald Trump elected as his running mate Monday, to leave the chamber during the campaign.
It makes sense to look to a senator as vice president: The role’s main official duty is to serve as president of the US Senate, although recent vice presidents don’t tend to spend too much time on Capitol Hill.
In fact, there is a long history of presidential candidates selecting senators as running mates. President Joe Biden was at the end of a long career as a US senator from Delaware when he was tapped as then-Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008. Biden and Obama both continued to serve in the Senate during the campaign, as did Sen. John McCain, the Arizonan who was Republicans’ pick that year.
Biden picked then-Sen. Kamala Harris as his own running mate in 2020.
Vance won his seat in the Senate in 2022 and won’t be up for reelection as a senator until 2028. If he and Trump win in November, Vance would need to resign before taking the oath of office on January 20.
