OTTAWA — Donald Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate has overjoyed Trump fans in Silicon Valley and freaked some other business leaders right out. Vance’s particular variety of populism—like Trump’s—doesn’t fit perfectly into traditional left-right categories in the United States.

Decades younger than Trump, highly educated, a venture capitalist and social conservative—here’s what you need to know about the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

The basics: Born in Ohio in 1984, Vance served in the Marines and went to Yale Law School. He became a national figure as the author of a 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, recounting his harrowing youth and ascent from poverty in a Rust Belt town.

By the time the book came out, Vance was a venture capitalist as a principal at Mithril Capital, co-founded by Peter Thiel and Ajay Royan. As Trump campaigned for the presidency, Vance called him “reprehensible” and compared him to Adolf Hitler. He’s since repudiated those views—and taken fierce criticism for it.

In 2017, Vance left Mithril to join ex-AOL boss Steve Case’s Revolution investment house, and then co-founded his own Lord of the Rings themed firm in Cincinnati, Narya Capital (named after an Elven ring of power). He won an open Senate seat in 2022, with Trump’s endorsement and Thiel’s financing.

Vance’s most recent financial disclosure, covering 2022, lists dozens of personal investments in privately held companies, including holdings worth US$100,001 to US$250,000 in both Toronto-based YouTube competitor Rumble and in bitcoin.

Tech: Techno-optimists and effective accelerationists hailed Vance’s nomination.

Trump and Vance have an antipathy toward Big Tech and big business generally, to a degree some traditional U.S. conservatives find alarming. Vance shares Trump’s complaint that social media giants are censor-happy, but he has a perspective of his own that’s more in keeping with the pro-startup arguments of VC colleagues like Marc Andreessen.

Vance said in February the Biden-appointed chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, is doing a “pretty good job” on competition matters. He shared a bill with Khan at a Y Combinator event on regulation in digital industries that month.

At the same event, Vance attacked SEC chair Gary Gensler’s approach to regulating cryptocurrencies.

Trade: Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told the CBC that Vance is a welcome pick because an Ohioan will understand how important trade is. As Trump is promising tariffs on most imports and retaliation for other countries’ tariffs, Canada has launched “Team Canada” missions to the U.S. to make the case Hillman said Vance already understands.

And also: Vance called for higher taxes and “whatever else is necessary” to target corporations opposing changes to state voting laws; cosponsored a bill to raise the federal minimum wage (and verify workers’ legal status); scorns green energy and introduced a bill to end tax credits for EVs; opposes further aid to Ukraine.