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Until the very end, some people close to Donald Trump tried to talk the former president out of picking Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate.

Aboard Trumps plane en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) argued that Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) would be better than the untested Vance because the Cuban American senator might attract more votes in battleground states. He tried to recruit others on Trumps plane to support his position, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Another adviser argued in a phone call a couple of days earlier that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) or Rubio would be a better choice because of Vances previous comments opposing abortion, asking Trump how he would defend some of the senators positions that seemed further to the right than his.

An array of senators, donors, conservative media personalities and other supporters called Trump in the final 48 hours before the announcement, lobbying for Rubio or someone other than Vance because they said other candidates could attract additional voters to Trumps coalition, according to five people familiar with the talks who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Trump listened as each person made their case, but they said the former president said his gut had been with Vance for many weeks, if not months liking his Rust Belt upbringing, foreign and economic policy positions, pugnacious TV appearances, and academic pedigree. Vance had influential backers, including Donald Trump Jr. and tech billionaires.

Trump later said choosing Vance was a difficult pick, likening it to The Apprentice, his former reality television show, in a meeting with Floridas delegates in Milwaukee. But Trump said it was partially about securing the future of the Republican Party after he was gone. He is going to be a superstar in the future, Trump told delegates and donors huddled inside the Baird Center, according to an attendee.

Whether that bet one of the most consequential Trump will make this year pays off remains unclear. In the nearly two weeks since, President Biden has dropped out of the race and Vice President Harris is now the likely Democratic nominee, energizing Democrats. Vance, meanwhile, had a rocky first full week on the campaign trail since departing the convention, attracting unwanted attention to the Republican ticket.

The Trump campaign has spent the past week trying to clean up after Vances controversial comments, including previous interviews in which he mocked childless cat ladies or took a position on abortion much stronger than Trumps.

In addition, previous emails between Vance and a friend reported by the New York Times show Vance saying he hated the police because they mistreated people, calling Trump a morally reprehensible human being and saying that the more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people will suffer. A Trump adviser called the emails not ideal.

Vance has come under attack from friendly quarters, as well, including the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board, social media personality Dave Portnoy and conservative media star Ben Shapiro. Some question the vetting from Trumps team and are asking if picking Vance could now backfire.

Some Republican strategists said they fear Vance could hurt the ticket with suburban women a group where Trump saw significant erosion in his 2020 loss after his 2016 win. Among Trump allies, there has been constant discussion about whether the president made a bad choice, according to one longtime adviser. Text message chains have blown up with his awkward public appearances, the person said.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung defended Vances performance as Trumps running mate. He said the criticism is nothing more than musings from out-of-touch individuals who have no idea whats going on. They are so out of the loop, they might as well be living in a different universe.

Trumps campaign aides say the former president remains confident in Vance. The two appeared together at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday evening and at a Minnesota rally Saturday. Vance flew to Oklahoma City on Friday, where he headlined a fundraiser with oil baron Harold Hamm that was said to have raised more than $2 million. He is expected to keep a busy travel schedule both appearing in Midwestern states and raising money. The campaign has also been pleased with Vances sharp attacks against Harris in recent speeches.

President Trump is thrilled with the choice he made with Senator Vance to be his running mate, and they are the perfect team to take back the White House, Cheung said. Meanwhile, Democrats are in complete disarray after their coup that forcibly removed Biden from the campaign, proving they are the real threats to democracy.

Trump was aware, advisers said, that Vance had been critical of him in the past. People familiar with the vetting said that Trumps team was aware of some, but not all, of his previous comments that have drawn attention and expect more revelations to come. Top advisers to Trump watched many of his previous interviews, read his book, Hillbilly Elegy, and asked him questions, along with a more formal paperwork process, a Trump adviser said.

A thorough and exhaustive vetting obviously took place and there was no doubt Senator Vance was absolutely qualified to be the next Vice President of the United States. In politics, people usually cower in fear and curl up in a ball when things get tough. Not Senator Vance and certainly not President Trump, Cheung said.

Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mitt Romneys presidential campaigns, said the Trump-Vance campaign appears to have been caught flat-footed with past comments.

Every single day on a presidential campaign, you are getting a political colonoscopy, Madden said. But whats compounded here in this case, were talking about a 39-year-old who is one-third of the way through his Senate term and thats why youre seeing the sort of bumpy start.

The particularly rough start for Vance has come as a welcome surprise for the Harris campaign, according to a Harris aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private conversations. Although they had expected Vance to face some questions over his past critiques of Trump, the Harris team had not expected some of the harsh internet buzz.

We did not expect we would have cat lady news cycles, the aide said. This is organically happening without us pushing. Ive never seen anything like it. Its so weird.

The Harris campaign has tried to highlight other past comments, such as Vances positions on abortion an issue Trump has often sought to avoid and that polls show is a vulnerability for Republicans with the general electorate. People close to the Harris campaign say the selection of Vance makes the arguments easier.

KamalaHQ, the Harris campaigns rapid-response X account, has repeatedly posted old Vance content. In one video clip from a 2021 talk about no-fault divorces, Vance says that divorces, even after domestic abuse, maybe worked out for the moms and dads, though Im skeptical. But it really didnt work out for the kids of those marriages.

In an audio clip from a 2022 podcast, Vance advocates for a federal response to restrict women traveling across state lines for abortions. And in a 2016 video of Vance on the speaking circuit after his book release, he says Trump is a really bad candidate and frankly I think hes a really bad person.

Vance has said those clips about policy positions were taken out of context and that his position on Trump has evolved since he saw Trump in action as president.

Vance has drawn significant mockery and derision for having said on Fox News in 2021 that women politicians like Harris who havent given birth are childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives. He added that they have no direct stake in Americas future.

Vance went on Megyn Kellys show and tried to clarify these previous comments. Ive got nothing against cats. Ive got nothing against dogs. Ive got one dog at home and I love him, he said. People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said, and the substance of what I said, Megyn Im sorry, it is true. It is true that weve become anti-family. It is true that the left has become anti-child.

Vance spokesman William Martin said it was no surprise that Democrats were attacking Vance and that Vance was planning instead to highlight the Biden administrations record on inflation and immigration. Those are the issues voters actually care about, no matter how much the leftwing media wishes otherwise, Martin said.

Vance was pushed by Trump Jr., the former presidents eldest son, and a range of influential others, including tech billionaires such as Elon Musk and media personalities such as Tucker Carlson.

One of Trumps goals in the pick was to have a candidate with Midwest roots who could camp out in states like Pennsylvania and talk to blue-collar voters. Trump is underperforming with White men and Vance could help shore up that base, advisers say.

Another goal was to tap into Vances significant donor network, including in Silicon Valley. And Trump liked Vance on television, advisers said.

JDs book is number one on Amazon right now. People are paying him to read his life story. The Harris campaign will have to pay TV networks and social media platforms to tell her life story, said Justin Sayfie, a Florida lobbyist who has raised money for Trump.

David Urban, a longtime Trump ally in Pennsylvania, said he believed Vances personal story would resonate with blue-collar voters.

If he goes and says to people at a town hall, or at a rally, how many people have been affected by drugs and alcohol? How many people in this crowd have worked two or three jobs and feel like they cant get ahead? How many people in this crowd have joined the military to further yourself? Urban said.

So far, Vance has received warm, if far smaller, welcomes than Trump.

One of the first bumps in the campaign trail came as early as Vances rally Monday in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio. The auditorium of the high school he attended filled with a few hundred people, including those he had known from childhood among them his mother and a beloved math teacher chanting J-D!

When an audience member shouted at Vance about requiring identification to vote, the candidate, new to the national stage, got distracted. The diatribe that followed became the most watched moment from the whole event.

It is the weirdest thing to me, Democrats say that it is racist to believe well, they say its racist to do anything. I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday and one today; Im sure theyre going to call that racist, too, he said.

Greg Hieser, 68, watched the event and said he still believed Trump and Vance would win even if he had some misgivings about Vances speaking style.

Hes still green about it, Hieser said, but hell get the hang of it.

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With Vances rocky debut, Republicans ask if Trumps VP bet will pay off - The Washington Post

Donald Trump loves to show off how smart he is. Im, like, a smart person, he boasted on one occasion. I went to an Ivy League college, I was a nice student, he said on another. Im a very intelligent person. And perhaps most memorably, Im a very stable genius.

But the dopey language he chooses, along with his disheveled, unpresidented grammar both intentional and inadvertent belie those assertions. Its impossible to forget that this is the same guy who spells little liddle, capitalizes at random and blunders out the occasional covfefe.

Trump is shrewd enough to know that Americans dont like a guy who acts smart. So if his fumbles are strategic, its not entirely dumb. On the left, people think emphasizing intellect and elite schools betrays unfair advantage in a multiple-intelligences, equitable-outcome world. On the right, your average MAGA Joe bristles at anyone who comes across as a coastal elite or too smart for his own good.

In its recent populist incarnation, Republicans downplay any whiff of intellectualism by avoiding big words in favor of Kid Rock fandom and trucker hat slogans. In MAGA world, glorified ignorance actually serves as a qualification for higher office (see: Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene), empowering more effective rage against the liberal elite and the ruling class.

This puts those Republican politicians saddled with inconvenient Ivy League degrees in an awkward position, like the guy who shows up in a tux for a rodeo wedding. In order to stay in office and on message, they must reject the very thing that propelled their own careers.

Remember, Ron DeSantis once eagerly joined one of Yales secret societies and told classmates hed dreamed of attending Harvard Law. He founded a tutoring firm offering the only LSAT prep courses designed exclusively by Harvard Law School graduates.

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Opinion | The Republican Partys Elite Conundrum - The New York Times

From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Phillys suburbs do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

As of Monday, Bucks County has flipped red, with Republicans gaining a more than 200 voter registration advantage over Democrats.

Pat Poprick, chair of the Bucks County Republican Committee, said this turn marks the culmination of a years-long effort by Republican organizers in one of Pennsylvanias most sharply divided counties.

Were all ecstatic. This is something since 2007, thats the last time weve been in the majority, so this has been something thats been very important to all of us, she said.

Republicans closed a gap of 10,000 registered voters dating to November 2020. At that time, registered Democrats in Bucks numbered over 208,000, with Republicans topping out over 198,000.

As of Monday, Republicans now number 198,045, with Democratic registrations at 197,781.

Republican organizers said the shift comes from Democrats switching their registration to Republican, residents who recently moved to the area who had to update their voter registration to their new address and registered Republican, as well as 18 year olds or other people who hadnt previously registered to vote signing up as members of the GOP.

Dan Mallinson, associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg, said that while voter registration numbers are important, they arent the full story. Oftentimes, voter registration numbers lag behind actual voting behaviors, he said.

Even though the Democratic presidential candidate has won in Bucks County since 1992, if you look at the actual differences between the Democratic winner and the Republican, many of those races are still very, very close, including the last election, Mallinson said. In the fall, well know if it really now is a red county, or if those registrations are just kind of lagging how peoples voting behaviors [have] already changed.

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Bucks County now has more registered Republicans than Democrats - WHYY

In his bid to claim the House speakers gavel and end three weeks of chaos last fall, Rep. Mike Johnson mapped out an ambitious agenda.

Week by week, month by month, the Louisiana Republican promised to meet the urgency of this hour with bold, decisive action. Above all else, Johnson promised, the House GOP would finish funding federal agencies before the traditional end-of-summer five-week recess.

DO NOT break for district work period unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House, he wrote on Oct. 23, in a letter sent to all House Republicans with to-do lists and all-caps directives.

Well, that didnt pan out.

Before lunchtime Thursday, Speaker Johnson bowed to reality and sent lawmakers home a week earlier than originally planned, turning what is traditionally called August recess into a 6-week break from legislative action.

Republicans have passed five of the 12 bills that fund the federal government, putting them well ahead of last years absolutely dysfunctional timeline, when just one bill had been passed at this point. But the House GOP failed to pass two others and decided the rest were too politically tricky to even attempt at this point.

Even those bills that did pass contain so many extremely conservative policy riders and spending cuts to important programs that they are dead in the Senate, where a traditional bipartisan process is playing out as expected. All that House Republicans have to show for their work on government funding is creating more political exposure for a couple dozen incumbents that might further endanger their majority.

While most Americans have focused their attention on the made-for-Hollywood presidential campaign, House Republicans have continued sputtering along in the shadows the past three months in their traditionally chaotic fashion.

A few weeks ago, as President Biden struggled, that might have been a fine enough strategy. But his decision to stand down has lit a fire under liberal activists rallying for Vice President Harris, and up to 10 of the most vulnerable House Republicans reside in California or in the New York media market. In those places, former president Donald Trump remains a political anchor while Harris might energize her base out of their Biden-induced slumber possibly setting the stage for a net gain of at least four seats that would vault Democrats into the House majority next year.

It didnt have to be this way for House Republicans. Back in the early spring, Johnson allowed passage of a national security bill that included $60 billion for Ukraine. That came right after the passage of two massive packages that included all 12 spending bills at the funding level agreed to last year by Biden and Johnsons predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

As a result, some of Trumps loudest House allies tried to force him out in similar fashion to McCarthy. But Trump gave the speaker the support he needed to fend off the challenge (also bolstered by some Democratic votes). Johnsons path to remaining in power became clear: retain the majority and hope Trump wins the presidency and endorses him for another term.

Trump has never shown much interest in the specificity of agency budgets, other than those dealing with border security. Some of the most conservative members encouraged the speaker to not even bother trying to approve the 12 spending bills until after the election, hoping for a Republican sweep that would lead to a very conservative budget.

But House GOP leaders have tried to split the difference by sticking to the rigid outline of the Biden-McCarthy deal. Theyre ignoring side deals that led to billions more in domestic funding while also allowing some very conservative policy riders to creep into funding legislation.

Democrats accused the speaker of genuflecting, again, to his most conservative wing by engaging in a spending process that would fail. They knew these bills could never pass. They went through this charade to appease Republican extremists, and now, Speaker Johnson is sending members home despite promising he would not take August recess unless all 12 bills passed, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.

Republicans defend their dismal showing by blaming Democrats for never providing more than a handful of votes for the bills, leaving them little margin for error. You eventually hit a wall because, you know, we have a few of our own members that vote against some of these bills, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who made the call to send lawmakers home early, told The Hill.

By pushing ahead with these GOP-only bills, Republican leaders have repeatedly forced their most politically vulnerable members to cast votes in the committee and on the House floor that arent exactly appealing to centrist voters.

Because of their own conservative political demands, House Republicans protected funding for the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs, as well as Social Security and Medicare. That forced deep cuts to some domestic programs in order to slash overall spending consistent with their political and policy aims.

The result: Democrats estimate that 72,000 teacher positions for low-income students would be eliminated in the bill funding the Education Department, while the Environmental Protection Agency could face a 20 percent cut. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service budget would come in more than $300 million below the presidents request.

These domestic programs dont grab national headlines, but they are often beloved in certain regions and can be quite easily turned into political weapons.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), a freshman whose district narrowly backed Biden over Trump four years ago, received an early lesson last year when he voted in committee for the bill funding the Agriculture Department. It included restrictions against mail delivery of pills related to abortions, a vote that Democrats turned into a quick video ad against him.

Democrats homed in on Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), a senior member of the committee who is facing a difficult reelection in his suburban district, for voting to strip LGBTQ+ community funding projects out of another bill.

The more establishment-friendly corner of the House Republican conference often begrudgingly goes along with leadership even if it means supporting bills pushed by far-right Republicans from safe conservative districts.

After final votes Thursday, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), from a Long Island district that leans Republican, told reporters he would center his campaign on bills passed last year that tried to deal with key issues for swing-district voters.

Im going to focus my campaign on policy and ensuring that voters know where I stand on the issues that matter the most about the border, about the economy, public safety, pocketbook issues, inflation, said LaLota, who faces a well-funded opponent, former CNN news personality John Avlon.

He said he was ready to defend cuts to some domestic programs as a down payment toward reducing the nearly $35 trillion national debt.

There are things that responsible people from Washington need to do, and that should not be a partisan issue. Members of both parties should be able to join in reasonable, responsible spending cuts, LaLota said.

Some GOP moderates have rebelled against the spending bills along with some arch conservatives who make it a habit of voting against almost every funding plan and that has stalled the appropriations process until the fall, or more likely, until after the November elections.

In trying to placate his hard-line members, Johnson and other GOP leaders are fighting the last war. They continue to act as if their biggest fear is a right-wing coup, as befell McCarthy, when their most immediate concern should simply be protecting their majority.

About 20 House Republicans antagonized McCarthy last year, beginning with forcing him to go 15 rounds in early January 2023 before electing him speaker. In October, eight of them joined with Democrats to oust him as speaker.

After three weeks of paralysis over electing a speaker, Johnsons best rsum highlight might have been that no one hated him, meaning he could win the floor vote for speaker.

But in the past few months, the atmosphere shifted away from the 20 or so most strident conservatives and toward whatever best serves the interests of Trump who seems to clearly get that last years chaos should not be repeated anytime soon.

Trump demonstrated that by helping defeat the effort by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), considered one of Trumps closest allies, to oust Johnson. And not a single Republican has paid any political price in their primary election for supporting Ukraine aid, with Trump silent in most of those races.

The Trump-Johnson connection was on display at the GOP convention in Milwaukee, where the speaker regularly got spotted in the VIP front rows with Trump and other high-profile Republicans. And some of the fringier conservatives were somewhat sidelined, including Greene, who was often seated a row or two behind Trump and got relegated to a non-primetime speaking role. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) never spoke onstage.

If Trump wins and Republicans retain the House majority, Johnson stands a good chance of winning his endorsement to remain speaker which would all but silence Johnsons critics.

If Republicans lose the majority, whether or not Trump wins, Johnson will have a hard time remaining GOP leader.

And Democrats want to make Republicans pay for every vote theyve cast the past 18 months.

I think what we should use against them is the fact that they are incompetent, said Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee. I have served here for a long, long time, and Ive never seen such incompetence.

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Column | House Republicans continue to flail, further endangering their majority - The Washington Post

Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, July 22, 2024, during an event with NCAA college athletes. It was her first public appearance after President Joe Biden endorsed her to be the next presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

As Vice President Harris moves closer to the Democratic presidential nomination, some top Republicans are focusing their attacks on her race and gender - and her supporters are warning that strategy might backfire for her opponents.

In recent public comments, Republican members of Congress including Harriet Hageman of Wyoming and Tim Burchett of Tennessee have described her as a DEI hire.

On Fox Business, a guest repeated that idea and referred to a vulgar TikTok meme, appearing to imply without evidence that Harris had somehow used sexual relationships with powerful men to advance her career.

Harris is the highest-ranking woman ever to hold office in the United States. And the first person of Black and South Asian heritage - not to mention that she could become the first female president.

To her supporters, like Fatima Goss Graves of the National Womens Law Center, the crude stereotypes about powerful women are no surprise.

Rather than talking about their out-of-step views, they're trying to resort to old tactics of scaring people using racist and sexist tropes, Graves said. And so it is totally predictable. But it is also ridiculous.

Its a sign, Graves contends, that Republicans are running scared after President Bidens decision to step aside from the presidential race upended the campaign.

These attacks just demonstrate how desperate they are, she said.

Supporters also see Harris as well-positioned to take on former President Donald Trump on key policy matters including abortion rights - an issue where Harris has been front and center and which motivates the Democratic base.

Ange-Marie Hancock, director of the Kirwan Institute at the Ohio State University, is curator of the Kamala Harris Project, which studies the vice president. Hancock says the messages about Harris race and gender appear designed by her opponents to undermine her credibility.

There is very much this idea that they want to make sure shes seen as not qualified, Hancock said.

Its not a new idea. In a Fox News clip from 2021 thats been circulating widely this week, JD Vance - now Trumps running mate - cast Harris as a childless cat lad[y] who is miserable and suggested that people without children exert too much influence over American politics.

Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, Doug Emhoff, whose former spouse and daughter both came to Harris defense this week.

Hancock, the political scientist, says messages about Harris gender may be aimed at key groups of swing voters.

Those kinds of things are really designed to appeal to those suburban women voters who are more traditional in their values about what kind of life women lead, Hancock suggested.

Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns for President as the presumptive Democratic candidate during an event at West Allis Central High School, Tuesday in Wisconsin. Kayla Wolf/AP hide caption

Harris supporters warn, though, that these attacks may backfire for Republicans by galvanizing the Democratic base.

What we know is that there are more people that are going to be re-engaged in this fight, explained Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign. They're going to see not only what's at risk, but what is possible, particularly if you're a person of color, if you're someone that lives at the margins. And those are the folks that were activating.

Some conservatives agree its not the right message. Republican strategist Deana Bass Williams, former press secretary for Ben Carsons 2016 presidential campaign, says Republicans should stay focused on policy.

Republicans do a much better job and we win when we are talking about the failed Biden policies, she said. So I dont think that it is appropriate to use that kind of language, and I also dont think its effective.

In a memo this week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee advised campaigns to focus on policy - including Harris role as the so-called border czar. It also encouraged candidates to label Harris as weird, and focus on several of her traits, including the way she laughs.

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Republicans call Kamala Harris a 'DEI hire' as attacks on her gender and race increase - NPR