Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio is heading out this week on his first swing through the Mountain West as Donald Trump’s running mate in the race for the White House.

Mr. Vance will kick off the swing-state trip with a pair of events in Nevada on Tuesday and plans to hold a rally the next day in Arizona.

The trip will give 39-year-old Mr. Vance a chance to introduce himself to voters in a pair of battleground states that helped President Biden send Mr. Trump packing in the race for president four years ago.

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With three months to go before Election Day, both states appear to be up for grabs in the presidential race. Voters there will also have the final say in high-profile, competitive Senate races that will help determine which party controls the upper chamber.

The Vance trip comes after Mr. Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, who appears to be on a glide path toward replacing Mr. Biden atop the Democratic ticket.

Mr. Vance, meanwhile, is getting an early taste of the intense scrutiny that comes with being tapped as a party’s vice presidential nominee.

He has faced a barrage of criticism over comments he made in 2021 about Ms. Harris not having biological children, saying she is one of the “childless cat ladies” who want to “make the rest of the country miserable, too.” 

“If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he said.

Ms. Harris is a stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s children, Cole and Ella, who, the vice president says, lovingly call her “Momola.” 

Democrats are betting the comments will not sit well with women who wanted to have kids but could not, and a growing number of people who choose not to have children.