Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio. After high school, Vance joined the Marine Corps, where he served as a military journalist from 2003 to 2007, and was deployed to the Iraq War for six months in 2005. He graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in 2009 and Yale Law School with a law degree in 2013. He practiced briefly as a corporate lawyer before embarking on a career in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. His memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, was published in 2016 and adapted into a film in 2020.
Vance was born James Donald Bowman on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio,[2][3] to Beverly Carol (née Vance) and Donald Ray Bowman. He is of Scots-Irish descent[4] and Appalachian American ancestry, spending time in his youth living with family in Jackson, Kentucky.[5][6] His parents divorced when he was a toddler.[3] After Bowman was adopted by his mother's third husband, Bob Hamel, his mother changed his name to James David Hamel to remove his father's first name and surname and to preserve an uncle's first name, David. Vance therefore kept his nickname, JD.[7][8][9]
Vance has written that his childhood was marked by poverty and abuse, and that his mother struggled with drug addiction.[10] He and his sister, Lindsey, were raised primarily by their maternal grandparents, James and Bonnie Vance (née Blanton), whom they called "Papaw" and "Mamaw".[11]
In 2007, Vance left the military and used the G.I. Bill[15][16] to study political science and philosophy at Ohio State University.[17] He graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude.[18] Vance then attended Yale Law School,[19][20] During his first year, Professor Amy Chua persuaded Vance to begin writing his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.[4][21] Vance also initiated a rapport with Peter Thiel after attending his 2011 talk at Yale.[19] In 2010–2011, Vance wrote for David Frum's "FrumForum" website under the name J. D. Hamel.[22][23] Although Hillbilly Elegy states that he adopted his grandparents' surname of Vance upon his marriage in 2014,[4][24] the name change actually occurred in 2013, as Vance was about to graduate from Yale.[1][19]
In June 2016, Harper published Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.[4] The memoir recounts the Appalachian culture and socioeconomic problems of Vance's small-town upbringing.[30]Hillbilly Elegy was on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2016 and 2017. The Times listed it among "6 Books to Help Understand Trump's Win",[31] and Vance was profiled in The Washington Post, which called him "the voice of the Rust Belt".[32] In The New Republic, Sarah Jones criticized Vance as "liberal media's favorite white trash–splainer" and a "false prophet of blue America", calling the book "little more than a list of myths about welfare queens".[33]Hillbilly Elegy's success helped propel Vance into contact with social elites, and he began writing a column for The New York Times. Vance later said that his interactions with social elites from this time, particularly their perceived disdain for "the people he grew up with", helped shape his later views.[34]
In 2017, Vance joined Revolution LLC,[35] an investment firm founded by Steve Case.[35] 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.[35]
Vance was a CNN contributor in 2017 and 2018.[36] 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 released on Netflix for streaming.[37]
In 2019, Vance served on the board of advisors of the With Honor Fund, a Super PAC that helps veterans run for office.[38] From 2020 to 2023, he served on the board of advisors of American Moment, a networking and training organization for young conservatives that is affiliated with Project 2025.[39][40]
In 2019, Vance and Chris Buskirk co-founded the conservative political advocacy group Rockbridge Network.[41] That year, he also co-founded venture capital firm Narya Capital in Cincinnati with financial backing from Thiel, Eric Schmidt, and Marc Andreessen.[42] During 2020, he raised $93million for the firm.[43] With Peter Thiel and former Trump adviser Darren Blanton, Vance invested in Rumble, a Canadian online video platform popular with the political right.[44][45]
Our Ohio Renewal
In December 2016, Vance said he planned to move to Ohio and would consider starting a nonprofit or running for office.[46][32] In Ohio, he started Our Ohio Renewal, a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization focused on education, addiction, and other "social ills" he had mentioned in his memoir.[47] According to a 2017 archived capture of the nonprofit's website, the members of the advisory board were Keith Humphreys, Jamil Jivani, Yuval Levin, and Sally Satel.[48][49] According to a 2020 capture of the website, those four remained in those positions throughout the organization's existence.[50] Our Ohio Renewal closed by 2021 with sparse achievements.[47][51] According to Jivani, the organization's director of law and policy, its work was derailed by Jivani's cancer diagnosis.[52][53] It raised around $221,000 in 2017 (including $80,000 from Vance himself) and spent the majority of its revenue on overhead costs and travel. In subsequent years, it raised less than $50,000.[49][54]
Vance speaks to the City Club of Cleveland, May 2017
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.[55][56][b] Our Ohio Renewal's tax filings showed that in its first year, it spent more (over $63,000) 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.[60][49] In 2017, Vance formed a similarly named 501(c)(3) organization, Our Ohio Renewal Foundation, which raised around $69,000 from 2017 to 2023.[54] As of September 2024, the foundation had not spent any funds since 2019.[61]
According to the Associated Press (AP) and ProPublica, 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.[62][63][49]
AppHarvest
From March 2017 to April 2021, Vance served on the board of directors of the startup AppHarvest, which carried out indoor vertical farming in Kentucky. AppHarvest was also one of Narya Capital's first publicly announced investments; touting the company's commitment to bring good jobs with health care benefits to an economically depressed area of Appalachia, Vance publicly advocated for AppHarvest, in February 2021 telling the media that it was "not just a good investment opportunity, it's a great business that's making a big difference in the world". AppHarvest went bankrupt in 2023 while owing over $340million. Citing interviews with former AppHarvest workers, CNN reported that some of them believed "Vance and other board members should have recognized and responded to warning signs that company officials were misleading the public and their own investors."[64]
Company founder Jonathan Webb and top executives collectively had little experience with horticulture and indoor agriculture, and the company struggled to meet its produce buyers' standards.[65] Workers complained to authorities about "brutal" working conditions stemming from high temperatures in company greenhouses coupled with allegedly heavy production demands, lack of safety gear, and few rest and water breaks. After many local workers quit, they were replaced by migrant contract workers mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, who eventually constituted over half the company's labor force.[64][65] Vance never held an operational role at the company, and his vice-presidential campaign said he had been unaware of the complaints about working conditions and that the decision to hire migrants was made after he resigned from the board.[64][65]
Vance announced his Senate campaign in Ohio on July 1, 2021.[3] On May 3, 2022, he won the Republican primary with 32% of the vote,[73] defeating multiple candidates, including Josh Mandel (23%) and Matt Dolan (22%).[74] On November 8, in the general election, Vance defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan with 53% of the vote to Ryan's 47%.[3][75] This vote share was considered a vast underperformance compared to other Ohio Republicans, especially in the coinciding gubernatorial election.[76] Vance had often previously spelled his name with periods after his initials ("J.D.")—including in the publication of Hillbilly Elegy—but after becoming a candidate for office, he removed the periods ("JD").[1]
Tenure
Senate official portrait, 2023
On January 3, 2023, Vance was sworn into the Senate as a member of the 118th United States Congress. Data from mid-July 2024 showed that he had made 45 Senate speeches and sponsored 57 legislative bills, none of which had passed the Senate. Vance had also co-sponsored 288 bills, of which two passed both the Senate and the House, but were vetoed by President Biden.[77]
On March 1, Vance and Senator Sherrod Brown cosponsored bipartisan legislation to prevent derailments like the one in East Palestine,[78][79] but the bill failed due to lack of intra-caucus Republican support.[80][81][82] In June 2023, Vance voted against raising the debt ceiling, standing against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023[83] and saying it would result in "a reduced military in the face of a rising threat from China".[84]
In July 2023, Vance and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced legislation that would have made gender-affirming care for minors a federal crime, with penalties of up to 12 years in prison.[85] In June 2024, Vance sponsored the Dismantle DEI Act, which would ban federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and funding for agencies, contractors, and organizations receiving federal funds.[86][87] Vance was not present for any Senate votes during his vice-presidential campaign.[88][89]
Trump's two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, advocated for their father to choose Vance. Several media and industry figures are said to have lobbied for Vance to be on the presidential ticket, including Elon Musk, David O. Sacks, Tucker Carlson, and Peter Thiel, who first introduced Trump to Vance in 2021.[95][96] The Heritage Foundation, which drafted Project 2025, privately advocated for Vance to be Trump's vice-presidential pick.[97] 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 Twitter: "This is who I want by Trump's side: an American patriot." In 2022, Sacks gave a super PAC supporting Vance's Senate campaign $900,000, and Peter Thiel added $15million.[98] It was initially reported that Elon Musk would contribute $45million monthly to the Trump-Vance campaign,[99] but Musk later said he planned to donate "much lower amounts".[100][101]
On May 15, 2024, Trump attended a $50,000 per head private fundraising dinner with Vance in Cincinnati.[102] Guests included Chris Bortz and Republican fundraiser Nate Morris.[103] Vance appeared at significant conservative political events and in June was described as a potential running mate for Trump.[104][105] In July, a former friend of Vance's from Yale Law School exposed to the media communications between them and Vance from 2014 to 2017, with the friend alleging that Vance has "changed [his] opinion on literally every imaginable issue that affects everyday Americans" in pursuit of "political power and wealth".[106][107]
In late July 2024, after President Joe Bidenwithdrew his candidacy for reelection and Vice President Kamala Harris became a presidential candidate, Vance said at a private fundraiser that the "bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden ... Kamala Harris is obviously not struggling in the same ways that Joe Biden did"; a day later, Vance told the media: "I don't think the political calculus changes at all" whether Harris or Biden was the Democratic nominee.[108] Following criticism of his past remarks and political positions, Vance said in an August 2024 interview that a vice president "doesn't really matter" and that "Kamala Harris has been a bad vice president".[109] This came after Trump said that the "vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact".[109] In late August, after the Trump campaign was embroiled in controversy for allegedly bringing cameras into a restricted area of Arlington National Cemetery during Trump's visit there, Vance first said that Harris "can go to hell" because "she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up", and then said "Don't do this fake outrage thing". At the time of his comments, Harris had not publicly discussed the incident.[110][111][112]
In August 2024, Vance said that Trump "said that explicitly that he would" veto a national abortion ban.[113] In September 2024, during his debate with Harris, Trump was asked about Vance's statement about the veto, and responded: "I didn't discuss it with JD ... I think he was speaking for me—but I really didn't."[114][115]
In late September 2024, Vance spoke at a western Pennsylvania town hall event organized by Lance Wallnau, who has promoted election denialism and called Kamala Harris a "demon".[116][117][118] In October 2024, Vance said he did not believe Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and that he believed "Big Tech rigged the election" through censorship.[119]
Comments on childlessness
"Childless cat ladies" redirects here. For the archetype, see Cat lady.
Shortly after being named Trump's running mate, Vance was criticized for saying in a 2021 Fox News interview, "we are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too."[120] The resurfaced comments, which were posted by MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski, sparked an immediate backlash across news and social media.[121][122] On July 26, 2024, Vance clarified his remarks on The Megyn Kelly Show, saying, "It's not a criticism of people who don't have children" and "this is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child".[123] He has said that being "pro-babies and pro-family" should be the Republican Party's highest priority.[124]
After backlash to the Fox News interview, additional comments that Vance had made in interviews about childless people resurfaced. In a 2020 podcast interview, he said that being childless "makes people more sociopathic and ultimately our whole country a little bit less, less mentally stable".[125] Vance's campaign referred to "radical childless leaders in this country" in a fundraising email sent after his appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight. CNN found multiple examples of Vance making similarly disparaging remarks about childless people, primarily Democratic officials.[126] In a 2021 speech at a Center for Christian Virtue leadership meeting, Vance said that childless teachers were "trying to brainwash the minds of our children" and criticized American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, saying: "If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone."[127] He also suggested in a March 2021 interview on The Charlie Kirk Show that childless people should be taxed at a higher rate than those with children, adding that the U.S. should "reward the things that we think are good" and "punish the things that we think are bad".[128] In an August 2024 interview on Face the Nation, Vance said he supported increasing the child tax credit from $2,000 per child to $5,000 per child, even though his Senate Republican colleagues had blocked an expanded child tax credit two weeks earlier while he was absent for the vote, having called it a "show vote" and saying it would not have passed even if he had been present.[129][130]
In September 2024, Vance made allegations of "Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country". Trump subsequently echoed the allegations, including during a presidential debate. Springfield authorities said there were "no credible reports or specific claims" of such incidents and that "Haitian immigrants are here legally".[131][132] Vance then said that it was "possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false", but also told his supporters to "keep the cat memes flowing".[133] He then promoted conservative activist Christopher Rufo's allegation that African migrants were eating cats in Dayton, Ohio; Dayton authorities reported "no evidence to even remotely suggest that any group, including our immigrant community, is engaged in eating pets".[134][135]
After Vance's claim about Haitians eating pets was disputed, he said: "Do you know what's confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here"; the child had actually died in an accidental collision between vehicles in Springfield, and the child's father criticized Vance for using the child's "death for political gain".[136][137] Vance also alleged a "massive rise in communicable diseases" in Springfield, but Clark County's health commissioner reported having "not seen a substantial increase in all reportable communicable diseases".[138] After Vance's and Trump's allegations, Springfield experienced multiple bomb threats in September. Vance denounced "violence or the threat of violence levied against Springfield", but continued his allegations against immigrants there.[139] He defended his claims about Haitian migrants eating cats, saying that he was willing "to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention ... we're creating a story, meaning we're creating the American media focusing on it."[140]
The vice presidential debate was held on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, at 9:00p.m. EDT at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.[141]
CBS stated in late September that the moderators would not fact-check the candidates during the debate, with fact-checking instead handled online and on-air only after the debate.[142] When Vance was fact checked on the status of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, he objected saying, "The rules were that you were not going to fact check," and argued that the immigrants should not be considered legal because the federal government decided their protected status after they had arrived in the United States.[143] Walz rejected Vance's argument, and the microphones were muted as Vance continued speaking.[144]
Nielsen Media Research reported that 43 million viewers across CBS and 15 other television networks watched the debate, down from 57 million viewers during the 2020 vice presidential debate.[145]
In July 2024, a CNN poll analysis after the Republican National Convention showed a net-negative approval rating for Vance.[76] That week, Vance's middling public reception and other concerns led some prominent Republican politicians and political analysts to say that he may have been a poor choice of running mate, especially in light of the shift in the election's dynamics upon the withdrawal of President Biden from the election and advent of Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.[146]
After the October 2024 vice-presidential debate, A CBS News/YouGov poll of 1,630 likely debate viewers found Vance's favorability rose from 40% to 49%, while Walz's increased from 52% to 60%. Both candidates' unfavorability ratings also declined, with Vance's dropping from 54% to 47% and Walz's falling from 41% to 35%. The poll had a margin of error of 2.7 points.[147]
As of February 20, 2025, according to FiveThirtyEight, Vance's overall favorability was 40.7% and his unfavorability was 42.5%.[148]
Among Vance's first acts as vice president was swearing in Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the first of Trump's cabinet nominees to be approved by Congress, on January 21.[152] On January 24, he cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.[153] In February 2025, after multiple federal judges issued temporary rulings against various Trump administration actions, Vance wrote, "judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power".[154]
President Trump and JD Vance with French President Emmanuel Macron on February 24, 2025
In his February 2025 speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC), citing in part what he said were examples in Romania, England, Scotland, and Germany, Vance called "the threat from within" his biggest concern in terms of security for Europe, "not Russia, not China".[155]
On February 28, 2025, Vance and Trump met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House's Oval Office in front of journalists in an internationally broadcast event.[156][157] During the meeting, Vance was mostly quiet during the first 40 minutes, but then interjected to answer a question about Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.[156][158] Vance told Zelenskyy: "The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy … What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing."[158] Zelenskyy responded that Putin had not abided by a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Ukraine, and asked Vance, "What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about?"[159]
Vance sitting next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the meeting
The conversation became hostile; Vance replied that he was discussing "diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of" Ukraine, telling Zeleknskyy: "it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media … you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict".[157][158] Zelenskyy asked whether Vance had ever visited Ukraine; Vance replied that had "watched and seen the stories" about Ukraine, accusing Zelenskyy of showing a "propaganda tour" of Ukraine.[157][160] He asked whether Zelenskyy had ever offered thanks, despite Zelenskyy starting the conversation by saying "Thank you so much" to Trump.[161] Vance falsely said Zelenskyy "went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October" 2024; Zelenskyy had actually visited a factory to thank workers producing ammunition for Ukraine,[162] though the timing of the visit and separately calling Vance "too radical" raised suspicion among Republicans.[163] After the meeting, Zelenskyy and his delegation were made to leave the White House, canceling the original plan to sign a minerals deal between Ukraine and the U.S.[158]
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".[207] 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 alignment with his political views.[208][209] Vance was influenced to convert to Catholicism by Peter Thiel.[210] He was criticized by Pope Francis for supporting deportation of migrants and responded by evoking the traditional concept of ordo amoris present in Catholic theology, which he interprets as loving his own nationals more than foreigners.[211]
Electoral history
2022 United States Senate Republican primary results in Ohio[212]
1 2 Vance was named James Donald Bowman at birth. Afterward, he was adopted by his mother's third husband and had his name changed to James David Hamel. In April 2013, he adopted his maternal grandparents' surname of Vance.[1]
↑ According to archived captures of the websites, by April 28, 2021, the domain ourohiorenewal.com was put on sale by hugedomains.com. In August 2022 the Ohio Democratic Party set up a website called Our Ohio Ripoff,[57] and from late August[58] to early November 2022, the domain Renewal redirected the user to the domain Ripoff.[59] In July 2024, the domain ourohiorenewal.com remains for sale, and the website ourohioripoff.com remains online.
↑ Herb, Jeremy; Gordon, Allison; Britzky, Haley; Murray, Sara; Ortega, Bob; Morales, Mark (August 17, 2024). "CNN Politics". CNN. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
↑ "Our Ohio Renewal/Ripoff". Ohio Democratic Party. 2022. Archived from the original on August 30, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2024. Paid For By The Ohio Democratic Party
↑ Wendling, Mike (July 16, 2024). "JD Vance was once 'never Trump'. Now he's his running mate". BBC News. Archived from the original on August 8, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024. 'I'm a 'never Trump' guy. I never liked him' and 'My god what an idiot' and 'I find him reprehensible' and 'I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole... or that he's America's Hitler'
↑ Haynes, Gavin (July 17, 2024). "JD Vance has some weird influences". The Spectator. Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. Retrieved July 17, 2024. Vance says he is 'plugged into a lot of weird, right-wing subcultures'. He draws from a whole new political lexicon, one that would seem baffling to his more starched colleagues in the Congress.
↑ Arnsdorf, Isaac; Dawsey, Josh; LeVine, Marianne (July 16, 2024). "How Trump got to 'yes' on Vance". The Washington Post. ISSN0190-8286. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024. Major Republican donors opposed Vance because they viewed his inclination toward economic populism as hostile to their model of small-government, free-market conservatism.
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