Sen. JD VanceHe is among the Republican candidates from Ohio Donald TrumpThe fellow vice presidential candidate will help the former president raise money in Cincinnati next month, according to an invitation obtained by NBC News on Tuesday.
Vance is being billed as a “special guest” for a May 15 fundraiser and “lunch discussion” hosted by Trump. Host committee members are asked to contribute or raise $250,000 per couple. Amounts for participants are $100,000 per couple or $50,000 per person. All funds will go Trump 47 Joint Fundraising Committee.
This event could be a kind of test for the first senator Vance, who lives in Cincinnati and became the best ally of Trump in Ohio. Eight years ago, during his first presidential bid, Trump put on a show listening to potential running mates At rallies before settling on Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana.
Such public spectacles have yet to materialize in Trump’s third bid for the White House. He is closed to himself Hush money trial in New York and isn’t able to campaign as much, though he does plan rallies Wednesday in Wisconsin and Michigan, two Midwest battlegrounds.
“Anyone who says they know who, how and when President Trump will pick his vice president, unless that person is Donald J. Trump, is wrong,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt said Tuesday evening.
Trump struck up a relationship with Vance, 39, after Vance endorsed him in the crowded 2022 Senate primary. They recently teamed up in Ohio on behalf of former car salesman Bernie Moreno, who won the GOP Senate primary this year after Trump held a rally for him in the final days of the race. Vance threw himself into the lead meeting high-level donors and Moreno to help raise money for a rally hosted by the pro-Buckeye Values PAC.
Moreno will face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in what is expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races this fall.
Ohio is not the presidential state it once was — Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2016 and 2020.
Vance said Sunday on Fox News he said he hasn’t talked to Trump about running for vice president but would “seriously consider” it if asked to join the ticket.
Vance is among several vice presidential prospects scheduled to appear at the Trump 47 spring retreat in Palm Beach, Fla., this weekend. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina, Govs. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York are also expected to attend the event.