Trump Names ACP Advocate JD Vance as VP Running Mate
Republican Senator from Ohio supported the continuation of the Affordable Connectivity Program
Joel Leighton
MILWAUKEE, July 15, 2024 - Former President Donald Trump on Monday named Ohio Senator JD Vance as his Republican running mate. Earlier this year, Vance was deeply involved in the bipartisan effort to add money to a dying federal internet subsidy program for more that 20 million homes.
“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump said on his Truth Social account.
Elected to the Senate in 2022, Vance fought to continue the Affordable Connectivity Program, which ran out of money in May after providing monthly discounts to 23 million low-income households, including more than 1 million alone in Ohio.
Vance also collaborated with Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio to support Intel’s $20 billion investment in constructing a semiconductor plant in Ohio as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.
Trump announced Vance as his vice president on Monday during the Republican National Convention here during the first day of the four-day event. Vance, a former Trump critic, has since become one of Trump's most vocal allies.
Following Saturday's assassination attempt on Trump at a Butler, Pa. campaign rally, Vance took to the X platform to lay the blame for the attack on President Joe Biden’s rhetoric.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination,” Vance said.
In an official statement Monday, Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon portrayed Vance as a foe of abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act who also supported undermining the autonomy of independent agencies.
“Donald Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate because Vance will do what Mike Pence wouldn’t on January 6: bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people,” O’Malley Dillon said.
Vance’s pick could signal a continued focus on closing the digital divide under a potential second Trump administration.
Starting in January, Vance joined a bicameral, bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill to inject new money into the ACP.
Created in 2021, the ACP was given $14.3 billion by Congress to provide $30 monthly discounts on the Internet bills of eligible low-income households.
Last November, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the ACP would run out of full funding in April. The program finally ran out of money on May 31, taking away the $30 discount from about 23 million households.
Vance tried to prevent that with the introduction of the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, along with Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.. On the House side, bill sponsors included Reps Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y. and Brian Fitzpatrick R-Penn.
The extension bill called for providing the ACP with $7 billion in new money - enough to keep the program afloat in 2024 while lawmakers debated whether to fold the ACP into the FCC's Universal Service Fund program, which is industry-funded and does not rely on congressional appropriations like the ACP.
The ACP extension bill never had a chance in the House, reportedly because Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to bring it up for a vote.
Vance was concerned about the demise of the ACP because 1.1 million Ohio households had enrolled – 23% of all households in the Buckeye State.
"This is exactly the type of program my family would have benefited from if I was growing up in Ohio today," Vance said in a Jan. 10 press release. "We must ensure low-income families all across Ohio, from our bustling cities to the most rural parts of Appalachia, aren’t cut off from the online banking, schooling, and connectivity services they need.”
The bill created an unusual coalition that included labor organizations, public interest groups and many industry participants, including: Comcast, AT&T, Charter, US Telecom, NTCA - the Rural Broadband Association, INCOMPAS, WTA (Advocates for Rural Broadband), the Wireless Infrastructure Association, Fiber Broadband Association, and NCTA – The Internet & Television Association.
On the Senate floor in May, Vance was blunt, suggested the ACP should have the same priority as the military budget for foreign wars.
“I know this is a controversial comment with some of my colleagues, but if we can afford to fund military conflicts the world over, can’t we afford to provide basic connectivity and services for our own people?" he said.
