AUSTIN, Texas – Today, in response to Donald Trump naming Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate for 2024, Texas Democrats are calling him out for what he is, a MAGA extremist who, like Senator Ted Cruz, pushes bogus election denialism, an agenda that would cut Social Security and Medicare, and who wholeheartedly supports Texas’ near-total abortion ban.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa released the following statement:

“Donald Trump picked J.D. Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: enable Trump and his extreme MAGA Project 2025 agenda, even if it means breaking the law and disrupting our democracy. If elected, Vice President Vance will enact Trump's Project 2025 agenda, push to ban abortion nationwide, gut the Affordable Care Act, and give tax breaks to billionaires and corporations instead of hard working Americans.

“As for Texas? J.D. Vance is in lockstep with colleague Ted Cruz in strongly supporting Texas near-total ban on abortion that is forcing women to risk their lives by fleeing the state to access basic healthcare. And just like Ted Cruz – J.D. Vance is against any exceptions for rape and incest.

“For the next three months, we will show the stark choices Texans have this November. Texas Democrats are focused on uniting the country, creating opportunities, and lowering costs; the MAGA Republican ticket will take away Americans’ freedoms and hurt the middle class.”

Like Ted Cruz, J.D. Vance strongly supports Texas’ near-total abortion ban, and is against exceptions for rape and incest.

• J.D. Vance “defends [the] Texas abortion law” – just like his colleague Ted Cruz, who called it “perfectly reasonable.”

• And like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance supports an abortion ban nationwide.

• Vance opposes exceptions for rape and incest survivors, saying “two wrongs don’t make a right,” and calling those circumstances “inconvenient.”

• Vance thinks women should stay in “violent” marriages.

J.D. Vance supports Trump’s agenda to cut Social Security and rip away Americans’ health care.

• Vance railed against the Affordable Care Act, which includes protections for millions of Americans with preexisting conditions.

• Vance called Social Security and Medicare “the biggest roadblocks to any kind of real fiscal sanity.”

J.D. Vance denies the results of the 2020 election and makes excuses for political violence.

• J.D. Vance admitted he would not have certified the 2020 election results, and echoes Donald Trump’s baseless lies refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election.

• Vance has repeatedly attempted to whitewash the political violence that occurred on January 6.

• Vance has a reputation as one of the most far-right extremists in Washington, endorsing a January 6 rally member for Congress and calling Marjorie Taylor Greene, who trafficks in antisemitism and division, “a friend.”

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