What happens to JD Vance’s Senate seat now that he’s Trump’s running mate?

CNN —

The Senate is narrowly divided and Democrats hold a slim majority. But there’s no need for Ohio Sen. JD Vance, whom former President Donald Trump selected as his running mate Monday, to leave the chamber during the campaign.

It makes sense to look to a senator as vice president: The role’s main official duty is to serve as president of the US Senate, although recent vice presidents don’t tend to spend too much time on Capitol Hill.

In fact, there is a long history of presidential candidates selecting senators as running mates. President Joe Biden was at the end of a long career as a US senator from Delaware when he was tapped as then-Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008. Biden and Obama both continued to serve in the Senate during the campaign, as did Sen. John McCain, the Arizonan who was Republicans’ pick that year.

Biden picked then-Sen. Kamala Harris as his own running mate in 2020.

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - JUNE 15: Former President Donald Trump gives the keynote address at Turning Point Action's "The People's Convention" on June 15, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.

Related live-story Trump formally nominated as GOP candidate and picks Vance as VP

In 2016, Hillary Clinton picked Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate. Kaine never gave up his seat and went back to serving as a senator after Clinton’s loss to Trump. In 2004, then-Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat, picked then-Sen. John Edwards as his running mate.

So what does that mean for the seat? Usually, when a senator is elected as either president or vice president, they will resign from their Senate seat in early January after the election. Biden, however, is an outlier in this. He kept his Senate seat longer than most in early 2009, perhaps so that he could