JD Vance charted a Trump-centric, populist path in Senate as he fought GOP establishment

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Ohio Sen. JD Vance traveled to the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, he wasn’t there to reassure Europe and other global allies that America would aid Ukraine in its war against Russia, as all of the other senators were.

Instead, Vance was there to deliver what he called a “wake-up call.”

In a fiery speech, the freshman senator said that just because Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “bad guy” doesn’t mean that America’s own interests shouldn’t come first.

“There are a lot of bad guys all over the world, and I’m much more interested in some of the problems in East Asia right now than I am in Europe,” Vance said, arguing that the U.S. doesn’t have the money or the manufacturing capacity to help Ukraine enough to win the war.

Now elevated into the national spotlight as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance’s short Senate career reflects the forces transforming the Republican Party. In just a year and a half, he has carved out a unique role fighting traditional Republican establishment figures, particularly on foreign policy. The 39-year old has been unafraid to challenge his fellow senators, many of them decades older, espousing a populist vision and defending Trump when many of his Republican colleagues stayed quiet.

“He was not afraid to go and speak his opinion to people who didn’t necessarily agree with him,” said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a senior Republican in the Senate, of Vance’s Munich trip. Barrasso, who who has grown close to Vance and advised him when he first came to Washington, said it was a “sign of boldness.”

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