Former President Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance, has made two main issues his focus during his brief Senate tenure: opposing aid to Ukraine and pushing for railway safety following last year’s freight train derailment in his home state involving toxic chemicals.
Vance, first elected in 2022, has also struck interesting positions in the spending and tax spheres, including pushing a bipartisan effort to compensate former hostages in Iran. Despite opposing the final fiscal 2024 spending package, he successfully got a provision included that would ban mask mandates for the Transportation Department.
He’s also pushed for partisan culture war-related bills that could signal priorities in a second Trump administration. This includes an effort to tax elite university endowments and block funding to colleges that allow protest encampments, among others.
