05-06-2025
JD Vance in Nashville: Why is he visiting and what to know about Trump's VP
Vice President JD Vance is coming to Nashville as the featured guest of a Republican National Committee fundraiser hosted by Lee Beaman.
Vance has spent a good deal traveling in the United States during the 2024 election season and since President Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, including several visits to Tennessee for campaign events and after taking office.
Here's everything you need to know about the man who holds the second-highest position in the U.S.
Little information has been released about where the event is happening and just how Vance will be arriving to Music City, but the arrival of the vice president could cause delays on the city's interstate system before and after Vance's arrival and departure.
Vance, a native of Middletown, Ohio and Jackson, Kentucky, described a childhood consumed by poverty and abuse in his best-selling 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy." Vance's mother struggled with drug addiction, so he spent many of his formative years with his grandmother – known to him as Mamaw. "Hillbilly Elegy," told about his time growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that "offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class." The book later became a Netflix feature film directed by Ron Howard.
Vance served as a Marine veteran between 2003 and 2007 as a combat correspondent – or military journalist, according to military news site Task & Purpose. He also spent a six-month tour of duty in Iraq in 2005. Based on his memoir, he would 'attach to different units to get a sense of their daily routine,' escort civilian press, and write stories about individual marines.
Vance also went to Yale Law School.
Vance was first elected to the Senate in 2022, but before that had no political experience.
In just two years, he went from comparing Trump to an opioid and saying Trump could be 'America's Hitler," in 2016. But as he came into the political arena, his tune changed and Vance deleted controversial tweets and secured Trump's support.
Vance and his family live in the East Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. He also has a $1.5 million home in Alexandria, Virginia, Politico reported.
The most recent visit was in January, when he came to visit East Tennessee to see the damage still being dealt with in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene.
He also made stops in Tennessee during the last few months of Trump's 2024 campaign for president.
Vance's wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, has not been in the same spotlight as her husband and has kept out of it focusing on her job as a litigator at Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP, a national firm based in San Francisco, according to reports from the New York Times.
The two met while at Yale Law School and married in 2014. They have three children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.
Take a look at USA TODAY's in-depth look at her background here.
Trump announced junior Ohio Senator Vance as his vice presidential nominee pick via social media on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
"After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Monday.
Trump kept the identity of his running mate a tightly guarded secret that had many guessing on who would actually be named. Vance beat others on the VP shortlist like Florida Sen. Marko Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: JD Vance in Nashville: Traffic impacts, what to know about Trump's VP
