J.D. Vance was an asset on the campaign trail this election.
He’s trying to carry his positive momentum into the administration.
And J.D. Vance was given a new job that will be the biggest fight of his life.
J.D. Vance becomes the Trump’s administration point man with Congress
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance will have spent two years in the Senate before he’s inaugurated on January 20.
President-elect Donald Trump already had him working on his behalf in the final major political fight of the year.
Trump and Vance issued a joint statement on the government funding bill to keep the government open.
Vance then traveled to Capitol Hill where he met with RINO Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) to talk about their opposition to the bill.
He returned the next day to meet with Johnson and talk with his fellow Senate Republicans about where things were in the fight.
“He told us all the problems that they’re having reaching an agreement,” U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley told Semafor.
Vance emerged as Trump’s spokesman on Capitol Hill with Republicans.
The more than 1,500-page spending bill that Johnson negotiated with Democrats was killed and replaced by a still bad bill that had some of the worst parts of the original stripped out.
Vance could play a key role in sheepherding key bills through Congress
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) admitted she found out that Trump opposed the spending bill through Vance’s social media account.
“I did indeed,” Lummis said. “From afar, it looked like this was the norm. And here we go.”
Vance is poised to play a key role as Trump’s point man on Capitol Hill and play a part in shaping legislation.
He’s a better ideological fit for the Trump agenda compared to former Vice President Mike Pence.
RINO U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said she expected Vance to play an active role in the administration.
“He’s going to be involved in a lot of decisions that the president makes,” Capito stated. “It won’t be just ones that are interacting in between the Hill and the White House.”
Vance can play the good cop to Trump’s bad cop in dealing with Congress.
“You can’t have the president call for everything,” a source close to Vance told Semafor. “JD is a former colleague calling them. It’s a little bit of a softer touch . . . [Trump] is the hammer. JD is more like a diplomat.”
Vance is also lobbying his colleagues in the Senate to build support from Trump’s cabinet nominees.
His influence in dealing with Congress extends beyond himself.
Trump named James Baird, a former top staffer to Vance, to serve as the director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs – the administration’s top staffer dedicated to dealing with Congress.
Congressional Republicans are hoping to pass a border security bill and an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts next year using budget reconciliation to bypass the Senate filibuster.
Slim Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress mean that it will take some horse trading to get those bills passed.
J.D. Vance will play an important role in trying to help shepherd both of those bills through Congress.
