A request that this article title be changed to JD Vance is under discussion . Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
JD Vance | |
---|---|
United States Senator from Ohio | |
Assumed office January 3, 2023 Servingwith Sherrod Brown | |
Preceded by | Rob Portman |
Personal details | |
Born | James Donald Bowman August 2,1984 Middletown,Ohio,US |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 |
Education | |
Occupation |
|
Signature | |
Website | Senate website |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Marine Corps |
Years of service | 2003–2007 |
Rank | Corporal |
Unit | 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing |
Battles/wars | Iraq War |
Awards | |
James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman; August 2, 1984) is an American politician, lawyer, author, and Marine veteran who has served since 2023 as the junior United States senator from Ohio. A member of the Republican Party, he is its nominee for vice president in the 2024 United States presidential election.
After graduating from Middletown High School, Vance joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served from 2003 to 2007 as a combat correspondent, with six months in Iraq. He then attended Ohio State University, graduating in 2009. He graduated from Yale Law School in 2013. His 2016 bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy got considerable press attention during the 2016 election and was adapted into a feature film by Ron Howard in 2020.
In 2021, Vance entered electoral politics as the Republican nominee in the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio, which he won, defeating Democratic nominee Tim Ryan. Initially opposed to Donald Trump's candidacy in the 2016 election, Vance has since become a strong Trump supporter. In July 2024, Trump nominated Vance as his running mate at the Republican National Convention. He is the first Marine veteran to be nominated for vice president.
On social issues, Vance has promoted strongly conservative policies, opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and gun control, and has proposed banning transgender healthcare for minors. He differs from mainstream Republican views on market interventions, taxes, the minimum wage, unionization, tariffs, and antitrust policy, [1] [2] [3] [4] while opposing American military aid to Ukraine.
James Donald Bowman was born on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio, to Beverly Carol (née Vance; born 1961) and Donald Ray Bowman (1959–2023). He is of Scots-Irish descent. [5] [6] His parents divorced when he was a toddler. Shortly afterward, Bowman was adopted by his mother's third husband, Bob Hamel, and had his name changed to James David Hamel. [7]
Vance has written that his childhood was marked by poverty and abuse, and his mother struggled with drug addiction. [8] Vance and his sister Lindsey were raised primarily by his maternal grandparents, James (1929–1997) and Bonnie Vance (née Blanton; 1933–2005), whom they called "Mamaw and Papaw". His grandparents on both sides moved to Ohio from Kentucky's Appalachia. [9] [5] [10] [11] [12]
After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003, [13] Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was deployed to Iraq as a combat correspondent for six months in late 2005. [14] There, he was assigned to the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. [15] [16] He has said that his service "taught me how to live like an adult" and that he was "lucky to escape any real fighting". [17]
Vance then attended Ohio State University with the support of the G.I. Bill's tuition benefits [18] and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and philosophy in 2009. [19] At this time, he worked for Republican state senator Bob Schuler. [20]
After graduating from Ohio State, Vance attended Yale Law School on a nearly full-ride scholarship for his first year. [21] He became close friends during Yale's orientation with future Canadian Conservative member of parliament Jamil Jivani. [22] During his first year, professor Amy Chua, author of the 2011 book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother , persuaded him to write his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy . [23] He was an editor of The Yale Law Journal , and graduated in 2013 with a Juris Doctor degree. [21]
Upon his marriage in 2014, Vance adopted his grandparents' surname of Vance. [24] In 2017, he received an honorary degree from Centre College. [25]
After law school, Vance worked for Republican Senator John Cornyn. He spent a year as a law clerk for Judge David Bunning of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, [26] then entered private practice at the law firm Sidley Austin. [27] Having practiced law for slightly under two years, Vance moved to San Francisco to work in the technology industry as a venture capitalist. [28] [29] Between 2016 and 2017, he served as a principal at Peter Thiel's firm, Mithril Capital. [30] [31]
In June 2016, Harper published Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis . It was on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2016 and 2017. The New York Times called it "one of the six best books to help understand Trump's win". [32]
The Washington Post called Vance the "voice of the Rust Belt", [33] while The New Republic criticized him as "liberal media's favorite white trash–splainer" and the "false prophet of blue America." [34] Economist William Easterly, a West Virginia native, criticized the book, writing: "Sloppy analysis of collections of people—coastal elites, flyover America, Muslims, immigrants, people without college degrees, you name it—has become routine. And it's killing our politics." [35]
Vance was a CNN contributor in early 2017. [36] [37] In April 2017, Ron Howard signed on to direct the film version of Hillbilly Elegy, which was released in select theaters on November 11, 2020. It was stream released on November 24 on Netflix. [38]
In December 2016, Vance said he planned to move to Ohio and would consider starting a nonprofit or running for office. [39] [33] In Ohio, he started Our Ohio Renewal, a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization focused on education, addiction, and other "social ills" that he had mentioned in his memoir. [40] The group was closed after less than two years with sparse achievements. [40] According to Jamil Jivani, the organization's director of law and policy, the group's work was derailed because of his own cancer diagnosis. [41] [42]
During Vance's 2022 campaign for U.S. Senate, Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee, said the charity was a front for Vance's political ambitions. Ryan pointed to reports that the organization paid a Vance political adviser and conducted public opinion polling, while its efforts to address addiction failed. Vance denied the characterization. [43] [44] A 2021 report by Business Insider revealed that Our Ohio Renewal's tax filings showed that in its first year, it spent more on "management services" provided by its executive director Jai Chabria, who also served as Vance's top political adviser, than it did on programs to fight opioid abuse. [45]
According to the Associated Press (AP), the charity's biggest accomplishment, sending psychiatrist Sally Satel to Ohio's Appalachian region for a yearlong residency in 2018, was tainted by the ties among Satel, her employer, American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and Purdue Pharma, in the form of knowledge exchange between Satel and Purdue and financial support from Purdue to AEI, as found by a ProPublica 2019 investigation. In an email to AP, Satel denied having any relationship with Purdue or any knowledge of Purdue's donations to AEI. [46] [47]
In 2017, Vance joined the investment firm Revolution LLC. [48] It was founded by Steve Case, who also cofounded AOL. [48] Vance was tasked with expanding the "Rise of the Rest" initiative, which focuses on growing investments in underserved regions outside Silicon Valley and New York City. [48] In 2019, Vance co-founded Narya Capital in Cincinnati with financial backing from Peter Thiel, Eric Schmidt, and Marc Andreessen. [49] In 2020, he raised $93 million for the firm. [50] With Thiel and former Trump adviser Darren Blanton, Vance has invested in Rumble, a Canadian online video platform popular with the political right. [51] [52]
In early 2018, Vance considered running for the U.S. Senate against Sherrod Brown, [53] but did not. [54] In March 2021, Peter Thiel gave $10 million to Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC created in February to support a potential Vance candidacy. [55] [56] [57] Robert Mercer also gave an undisclosed amount. [55] In April, Vance expressed interest in running for the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman. [58] In May, he launched an exploratory committee. [59] Vance is an ally of Republican fundraiser Nate Morris, who has also financially supported Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. [60]
Vance officially entered the race on July 1, 2021. It was his first campaign for public office. [61] [62] On May 3, 2022, he won the Republican primary with 32% of the vote, [63] defeating multiple candidates, including Josh Mandel (23%) and Matt Dolan (22%). [64] On November 8, in the general election, Vance defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan with 53% of the vote to Ryan's 47%. [65]
On January 3, 2023, Vance was sworn in to the Senate as a member of the 118th United States Congress. He is the first U.S. senator from Ohio without previous political experience since John Glenn, who took office in 1974.
Vance's Senate work has included:
He has also voted against raising the debt ceiling, standing against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. [69]
Vance was criticized for his delayed response to the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. [70] [71] [72] His office released an official statement on February 13, 2023, ten days after the derailment, though Vance had sent a message on social media about the derailment the day after it occurred. [73] [74] [75]
On February 26, 2023, Vance wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post supporting the provision of PPP style funds to those affected by the derailment, which some Republican senators criticized. [76] [77] On March 1, 2023, Vance, Brown, and Senators John Fetterman, Bob Casey, Josh Hawley, and Marco Rubio proposed bipartisan legislation to prevent derailments like the one in East Palestine. [78] [79] [80]
On January 31, 2023, Vance endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries. [81] On July 15, 2024, the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Trump announced that he had chosen Vance as his running mate in a post on Truth Social. [82] On July 17, the third day of the convention, Vance accepted the nomination to be Trump's running mate. [83] He is the first Marine veteran on a presidential ticket. [84] [85]
Media commentators noted that Vance could strengthen the Republican ticket in the Midwest. David A. Graham of The Atlantic wrote that Vance "brings youth and intellect to the Republican ticket". [86]
Catherine Lucey and John McCormick of The Wall Street Journal wrote that Vance "offers Trump a natural successor to his MAGA movement" due to his populist stances. [87] As such, he is seen as a candidate who could increase voter turnout among the former president's loyal voting base. [88]
AP reported that Vance could help deliver new funding streams to Trump's campaign, particularly those connected to the tech industry. [89] On May 15, 2024, Trump attended a $50,000 per head private fundraising dinner with Vance in Cincinnati. [90] Guests included Chris Bortz and Republican fundraiser Nate Morris. [91] Vance appeared at significant conservative political events and was described as a potential running mate for Trump in June 2024. [92] [93]
Several media and industry figures are said to have lobbied for Vance to be on the presidential ticket, including Elon Musk, David O. Sacks, and Tucker Carlson. [94] The Heritage Foundation, which drafted Project 2025, privately advocated for Vance to be Trump's vice-presidential pick. [95]
Musk responded to Trump's vice-presidential pick hours after its announcement, saying the ticket "resounds with victory". David Sacks, a prominent GOP donor and Silicon Valley venture capitalist, wrote on X: "This is who I want by Trump's side: an American patriot." In 2022, Sacks gave Vance's Senate campaign $900,000, and Peter Thiel added $15 million. Musk will be contributing $45 million monthly, said The Wall Street Journal. [96]
Trump's two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, advocated for their father to choose Vance. Trump Jr. has been friends with Vance since the publication of Hillbilly Elegy.
Vance was raised in a low-income family by his single mother and grandmother. [25] As noted in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy , the family had a difficult life in his home town, Middletown, Ohio, where his mother's parents had moved from Kentucky. As a child, he idolized an "American dream, with a happy family at its core", and admired Bill Clinton due to his similar background, noting that "He was a poor boy raised by a single mother and loving grandparents."[ verification needed ] [97]
Around 2011, [98] Vance met his wife, Usha Chilukuri, while both were graduate students at Yale Law School. [99] He has called her "my Yale spirit guide". [99] In 2014, they married in Kentucky, in an interfaith marriage ceremony; [100] [101] she is a Hindu and he a Christian. [100] [102] Their wedding included a Bible reading by Vance's "best friend", Jamil Jivani, [41] [103] and the couple was blessed by a Hindu pandit. [99] [98] The couple went on to have three children.
After graduating from Yale, Vance and his wife moved to San Francisco for a few years, where Vance worked with a venture capital firm while his wife joined a law practice. [104] In 2017, after the success of Hillbilly Elegy , Vance wrote in The New York Times that as a child who wanted the American dream, the personal story of Barack Obama, which showed that we need not be defeated by the domestic hardships, gave him hope; Vance felt that he had achieved something similar to Obama's early personal accomplishments: "a prestigious law degree, a strong professional career and a modicum of fame as a writer", though he also mentioned his political disagreements with Obama. [97]
Vance was raised in a "conservative, evangelical" branch of Protestantism. By September 2016, he was "not an active participant" in any particular Christian denomination, but was "thinking very seriously about converting to Catholicism". [105] In August 2019, Vance was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church in a ceremony at St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, Ohio. He chose Augustine of Hippo as his confirmation saint. Vance said he converted because he "became persuaded over time that Catholicism was true [...] and Augustine gave me a way to understand Christian faith in a strongly intellectual way", further describing Catholic theology's influence on his political views. [106]
In an interview with First Things, Vance said: "The core Christian insight into politics is that life is inherently dignified and valuable [...] If you actually believe that, you want certain legal protections for the most vulnerable people in your society, but you also want to ensure that workers get a fair wage when they do a fair job. You want to make sure that people don't have their town poisoned because they happen to live next to a railway line". [107]
Vance intends to be buried in a "cemetery plot on a mountainside in eastern Kentucky" [108] where multiple generations of his family have been laid to rest.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | J. D. Vance | 344,736 | 32.22% | |
Republican | Josh Mandel | 255,854 | 23.92% | |
Republican | Matt Dolan | 249,239 | 23.30% | |
Republican | Mike Gibbons | 124,653 | 11.65% | |
Republican | Jane Timken | 62,779 | 5.87% | |
Republican | Mark Pukita | 22,692 | 2.12% | |
Republican | Neil Patel | 9,873 | 0.92% | |
Total votes | 1,069,826 | 100.0% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | J. D. Vance | 2,192,114 | 53.04% | −4.99% | |
Democratic | Tim Ryan | 1,939,489 | 46.92% | +9.76% | |
Write-in | 1,739 | 0.04% | N/A | ||
Total votes | 4,133,342 | 100.0% | N/A | ||
Republican hold | |||||
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I took a job at the Ohio Statehouse, working for a remarkably kind senator from the Cincinnati area named Bob Schuler. He was a good man, and I liked his politics, so when constituents called and complained, I tried to explain his positions.
My entire family showed up for the occasion, and we both changed our name to Vance—giving me, finally, the same name as the family to which I belonged.
Purdue's hidden relationships with Satel and AEI illustrate how the company and its public relations consultants aggressively countered criticism that its prized painkiller helped cause the opioid epidemic.