Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) has received a new code name from the Secret Service agents assigned to his detail, one that holds a special meaning to him.

The Daily Mail reported that agents will begin referring to Trump’s vice presidential pick as “Bobcat” after offering Vance the opportunity to pick his own code name from a list of options. The name change comes two and a half weeks after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt and prompted the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. While high-value individuals protected by the department are often named internally on “sheer whim,” according to one source, Vance in this case was afforded his own chance to select a historic code name.

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“Bobcat” is a throwback to Vance’s autobiography “Hillbilly Elegy” in which the conservative lawmaker describes growing up in Middletown, Ohio, and later attending school at Breathitt County High School in Jackson, Kentucky whose mascot is the Bobcats. In addition, Vance has a love for football and his alma mater shares its mascot with Ohio University, though he graduated from Ohio State.

Codenames are unique to each individual and stay with them throughout the duration of their protection. In the case of President Trump, he will be referred to as “Mogul” by the agents who stay by his side for the rest of his life. He originally requested to be codenamed “Humble” and former First Lady Melania Trump came to be known by agents as “Muse.” Key to the nicknames is keeping them short, distinct, and easy to pronounce for agents as they work quickly in the field and were once central to keeping wayward listeners in the dark about who was being discussed on their radio channels. Today agents’ communication is encrypted and the codenames are largely a formality.

In his book, Sen. Vance writes about how Bobcats football was a rare opportunity for him to bond with his mother, who was battling addiction at the time and is now 10 years sober. “Mom checked out books on football strategy from the public library, and we built little models of the field with construction paper and loose change—pennies for the defense, nickels and dimes for the offense,” he writes in “Hillbilly Elegy.”

The “Bobcat” moniker is another reminder of Vance’s blue-collar roots that prompted Trump to select his running mate based on his strength in midwestern and Rust Belt states. Democrats’ “Blue Wall” relies on midwest states like Wisconsin and Michigan that often go their way in presidential years but which have trended toward Trump while President Joe Biden was in the race. With Vice President Kamala Harris now leading the party’s ticket and narrowing their gap in the polls, Trump will be reliant on Vance’s ability to connect with voters feeling disenfranchised about the shutting of factories by corporations in favor of overseas production as well as potential bans on fracking in places like Pennsylvania. Harris will be forced to defend the administration’s record on electric vehicle mandates which have proven extremely unpopular within Michigan’s auto industry.

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