ST. LOUIS—Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance will be in St. Louis Friday, just over a week after he was named as former president Donald Trump’s running mate. 

Vance, a first-term Senator from Ohio, will be in the area for a private breakfast fundraiser at an undisclosed location. Scheduling information is being kept under wraps. The event will be hosted by his fellow freshman in the Senate, Missouri’s Eric Schmitt.

Since Barack Obama came within a few thousand votes of carrying the state in 2008, Missouri voters have turned out handily for Republican tickets, eschewing the Missouri’s previous swing-state status.

Could this be as close as the presidential campaign gets to the state in 2024?

“I don’t know about that. I’m certainly going to be active on the campaign trail as we get closer to September, October for sure,” Schmitt said in a brief interview Thursday. “I’m going to do whatever I can to help President Trump and JD.”

The dynamics of the presidential race have shifted since the Trump-Vance ticket left Milwaukee and the Republican National Convention.

President Joe Biden announced he’s dropping out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris has consolidated support and is in line to be the Democratic party’s nominee. Her elevation would break a barrier, for the first time putting a black woman on top of a major party ticket. The search for a vice-presidential candidate is ongoing. The Associated Press reports that about a dozen candidates are being vetted, including swing-state governors like Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and North Carolina’s Roy Cooper.  In addition, Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, also from a swing state and someone with a military and space background, is reportedly under consideration.

In the eyes of some, the Vance pick seems to add little new to the Republican ticket, as The Atlantic reported this week:

“The selection of Ohio’s Senator J. D. Vance as Trump’s running mate, campaign officials acknowledged, was something of a luxury meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter.”

Schmitt pushed back on the assertion Thursday.

“I'm really proud of the fact that the Republican Party is the party of working families now. I mentioned that in my speech that I gave at the convention last week and I think JD further solidifies that and that's part of our DNA now as a multi-ethnic working class party,” he said, suggesting that Vance’s message on issues like illegal immigration and inflation will play in swing states like Ohio and Michigan.

“I think JD's a great spokesman for those issues,” Schmitt said.