Same as the old boss
By 
The idea that picking J.D. Vance represents a “populist” turn in the economic policy of the Republican Party is absolutely ludicrous nonsense based wholly on hollow rhetorical gestures:
Nevertheless, Vance’s ascension to the highest echelon of Republican politics is unlikely to transform the GOP into an effective steward of working-class interests. This is true for (at least) four reasons:
1) Where Vance’s ideas have broad Republican buy-in — as on trade and immigration — his policy preferences would be more likely to reduce native-born Americans’ living standards than increase them.
2) Vance’s concrete legislative proposals for increasing government intervention in the economy have tepid support from other Republicans and in any case would have only a marginal impact on US workers.
3) The Republican Party is structurally incapable of acting on Vance’s genuinely radical ideas about organized labor and the Ohio senator has done absolutely nothing to advance them.
4) The GOP has little incentive to betray the interests of its most well-heeled and organized constituencies for the sake of better serving working-class voters. After all, the party has already discovered that it can grow its support among blue-collar workers without making any significant concessions to their material interests.
The last point is critical. Sean O’Brien spoke at the RNC even though Trump picked someone with a 0% AFL-CIO score, openly announcing that no material concessions are necessary as long as the Republican Party is anti-woke and anti-immigration:
When Sean O'Brien spoke at the GOP convention, he said Veep nominee J.D. Vance, is someone the Teamsters can work with, adding, “He’s been right there on all our issues”
NOPE. The AFL-CIO says Vance has voted with working people 0% of the time @labornoteshttps://t.co/aCUIJvMoUb— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) July 19, 2024
And nor are labor issues an aberration, Vance’s voting record on economic issues is more right-wing than Ted Cruz’s :
Casting votes on legislation isn't a big part of a senator's job compared to projecting vibes.
But in terms of roll call votes, Vance has the fifth furthest-right voting record on economic issues beaten only by Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Tommy Tuberville, and Eric Schmitt.— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 18, 2024
Unless your idea of “progressive economic policy” is mass deportation and sweeping inflationary regressive tax increases Vance is just a standard-issue reactionary.
And, again, there’s nothing new about any of this. Populist rhetoric to defend upward redistributionist economic policy is the longstanding Republican formula! Which is why Republican elites had no trouble rallying around Trump when it became clear that he represented continuity.