J. D. Vance | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2023 | |
| United States Senator from Ohio | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2023 Serving with Sherrod Brown | |
| Preceded by | Rob Portman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | James Donald Bowman August 2, 1984 Middletown, Ohio, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Senate website |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 2003–2007 |
| Rank | Corporal |
| Unit | 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing |
| Battles/wars | Iraq War |
James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman; August 2, 1984) is an American politician, author, and United States Marine veteran serving as the junior United States senator from Ohio since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he is the party's nominee for vice president in the 2024 election.
After graduating high school in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, Vance 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 memoir Hillbilly Elegy became a New York Times bestseller, and was made into a feature film in 2020. It describes his upbringing in the Rust Belt, poverty, drug addiction, and Appalachian culture. It attracted significant press attention during the 2016 United States presidential election. Vance defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan in the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio. Initially opposed to Trump's candidacy in the 2016 election, Vance has since become a strong supporter of Donald Trump. On July 15, 2024, two days following the July 13th assassination attempt, Trump officially nominated Vance as his running mate at the Republican National Convention, the first Marine veteran to receive a Vice President nomination.
During his time in the Senate, Vance has been described as a neoreactionary, national conservative, and a right-wing populist. He has cited Curtis Yarvin, Rod Dreher, and Patrick Deneen as primary influences on his political and religious views. On social issues, he has promoted strongly conservative policies, opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and favoring bans on pornography and transgender healthcare for minors. Vance differs from mainstream Republican economic orthodoxy, including on taxes, minimum wage, unionization, tariffs, and antitrust policy, and opposes 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.[1][2] 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.[3][4]
Vance's childhood was marked by poverty and abuse, and his mother struggled with drug addiction.[5] 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 had moved to Ohio from the Appalachian Mountains area in Kentucky.[6][1][7][8][9]
After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003,[10] Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was deployed to Iraq as a combat correspondent for six months in late 2005.[11][12] There, he was assigned to the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.[13][14][15] This period of service has been described as "the defining chapter of his life", where he first developed a sense of purpose.[12]
In 2009, Vance graduated summa cum laude from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and philosophy.[16] In a later essay, he recalls studying the materialist philosopher Antony Flew, who shared the young man's atheistic worldview.[17] He also read the parables of Anglican philosopher Basil Mitchell, which shook his thinking at the time and, he says, "I have thought about them constantly since."[17] At this time, he worked for Republican state senator Bob Schuler.[18]
After graduating from Ohio State, Vance attended Yale Law School. 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.[19] He was an editor of The Yale Law Journal, and graduated in 2013 with a Juris Doctor degree.
Upon his marriage in 2014, Vance adopted his grandparents' surname of Vance.[20]
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After law school, Vance worked for Senator John Cornyn. He then spent a year as a law clerk for judge David Bunning of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.[21] He then entered private practice at the law firm Sidley Austin.[22] Having practiced law for slightly under two years, Vance moved to San Francisco to work in the tech industry as a venture capitalist.[23][24] Between 2016 and 2017, he served as a principal at Peter Thiel's firm, Mithril Capital.[25][26]
In 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. It was a finalist for the 2017 Dayton Literary Peace Prize[27] and won the 2017 Audie Award for Nonfiction. The New York Times called it "one of the six best books to help understand Trump's win".[28]
The Washington Post called Vance the "voice of the Rust Belt",[29] while The New Republic criticized him as "liberal media's favorite white trash–splainer" and the "false prophet of blue America."[30] 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."[31]
After his book's success, Vance became a CNN contributor in early 2017.[32][33] 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, starring Amy Adams as his mother, Glenn Close as Mamaw, and Gabriel Basso as Vance.[34] It was stream released on November 24 on Netflix.[35]
In December 2016, Vance said he planned to move to Ohio and would consider starting a nonprofit or running for office.[36][29] 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.[37] The group was closed after less than two years with sparse achievements.[37]
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.[38][39] A 2021 report by Business Insider revealed that the nonprofit's tax filings showed that in its first year, Our Ohio Renewal spent more on "management services" provided by its executive director Jai Chabria, who also served as Vance's top political advisor, than it did on programs to fight opioid abuse.[40]
According to the Associated Press (AP), the charity's biggest accomplishment, sending Dr. 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.[41][42]
In 2017, Vance joined the investment firm Revolution LLC.[43] It was founded by Steve Case, who also cofounded AOL.[43] 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.[43] In 2019, Vance co-founded Narya Capital in Cincinnati with financial backing from Thiel, Eric Schmidt, and Marc Andreessen.[44] In 2020, he raised $93 million for the firm.[45] With Thiel and former Trump adviser Darren Blanton, Vance has invested in Rumble, a Canadian online video platform popular with the political right.[46][47]
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Main article: 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio |
In early 2018, Vance considered running for the U.S. Senate against Sherrod Brown,[48] but did not.[49] In March 2021, Peter Thiel gave $10 million to Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC created in February to support a potential Vance candidacy.[50][51][52] Robert Mercer also gave an undisclosed amount.[50] In April, Vance expressed interest in running for the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.[53] In May, he launched an exploratory committee.[54] Vance is an ally of Republican fundraiser Nate Morris, who has also financially supported Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.[55]
Vance officially entered the race on July 1, 2021. It was his first campaign for public office.[56][57] On May 3, 2022, he won the Republican primary with 32% of the vote,[58] defeating multiple candidates, including Josh Mandel (23%) and Matt Dolan (22%).[59] On November 8, in the general election, Vance defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan with 53% of the vote to Ryan's 47%.[60]
on January 3, 2023, Vance was sworn in to the U.S. Senate, as a member of the 118th United States Congress. He is the first U.S. senator from Ohio without previous government experience since John Glenn, who took office in 1974.
Vance was criticized for his delayed response to the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.[61][62][63] His office released an official statement on February 13, 2023, ten days after the derailment.[64] Vance and others countered that he had tweeted about the derailment the day after it happened.[65][66]
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.[67][68] 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.[69][70][71]
In June 2023, Vance was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.[72]
For the 118th United States Congress, Vance was named to three Senate committees:[73]
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Main articles: Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign and 2024 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection |
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On January 31, 2023, Vance endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries.[74] On July 15, 2024, during the 2024 Republican National Convention, Trump announced that he had chosen Vance as his running mate in a post on Truth Social.[75]
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."[76] Catherine Lucey and John McCormick of the Wall Street Journal noted that Vance "offers Trump a natural successor to his MAGA movement" due to his populist stances.[77] As such, he is seen as a candidate who could increase voter turnout among the former president's loyal voting base.[78]
AP reported that Vance could help deliver new funding streams to the presidential campaign.[79] On May 15, 2024, Trump attended a $50,000 per head private fundraising dinner with Vance in Cincinnati.[80] Guests included Chris Bortz and Republican fundraiser Nate Morris.[81] He appeared at significant conservative political events and was described as a potential running mate for Trump in June 2024.[82][83]
Journalists have pointed out that Vance's position represents a number of firsts. He is the first Ohioan to appear on a major party presidential ticket since John Bricker (Thomas Dewey's running mate in 1944), the first person to have facial hair since Dewey himself, in his 1948 upset loss as presidential nominee, and the first veteran since John McCain in 2008, all of whom were Republicans.[12] If elected, he would be the first Ohio native to be elected to the vice presidency since Charles Dawes in 1924, the first to have facial hair since Charles Curtis in 1928—both of whom were Republicans—and the first veteran since Al Gore in 1992.[84][85]
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.[86] The Heritage Foundation, which drafted Project 2025, had been privately advocating for Vance to be Trump's vice presidential pick.[87]
During his time in the Senate, Vance has been described variously as a national conservative,[88] neoreactionary,[89][88][90] a right-wing populist,[88][91] and an ideological successor to paleoconservatives such as Pat Buchanan.[92][93] He has cited Curtis Yarvin, Rod Dreher, and Patrick Deneen as primary influences on his beliefs,[94] while citing William Julius Wilson, Robert Putnam, David Autor, René Girard, Raj Chetty, Yoram Hazony, and Carl Schmitt as additional influences.[88][93][95][96][97]
On social issues, Vance is considered to be strongly social conservative,[98] opposing abortion[99] and same-sex marriage[98] and gun control[100] while supporting the banning of pornography[101] and the federal criminalization of transgender healthcare on minors.[102] He is considered a maverick from Republican orthodoxy on economics, supporting increases for certain taxes on university endowments and corporate mergers, and for the minimum wage, unionization, tariffs, and antitrust policy, and has opposed continued American military aid to Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion.[103][104][105][106]
Vance has embraced aspects of the Dark Enlightenment, a movement that sees mass participatory democracy, particularly liberal democracy, as a threat to or incompatible with freedom.[89][90][95] Steve Sailer is a forerunner of the ideology.[107] In 2007 and 2008, software engineer Curtis Yarvin, writing under the pen name Mencius Moldbug, articulated what developed into Dark Enlightenment thinking. English philosopher Nick Land elaborated and explanded on Yarvin's theories.[108]
Vance is a personal friend of Yarvin's[89][109][110] and has said: "I think Curtis Yarvin's monarchy ideas are bonkers, but you know what? He's absolutely on to something real with his concept of the Cathedral" and "The nature of the fight in front of us now is such that we can't afford to be over-prissy about our allies".[89] Vance has argued that American liberals falsely claim to preserve an apolitical civil service that in reality is used to punish right-wing figures, saying: "The thing that I kept thinking about liberalism in 2019 and 2020 is that these guys have all read Carl Schmitt—there's no law, there's just power."[111]
Vance supported the United States Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade,[112] personally opposes abortion, and has said he might support a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks, like Norway's and Denmark's (12 weeks) and Sweden's (18 weeks). More recently he said that abortion laws should be set by the states.[113][114]
In September 2021, when asked whether abortion laws should include exceptions for rape and incest, Vance said, "two wrong[s] don't make a right."[115][99] A month later, he said: "There's something comparable between abortion and slavery and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society."[116][117] Yet in a 2022 debate, Vance said, "I've always believed in reasonable exceptions." Later, he specified that he supported exceptions for rape, incest, and preserving a mother's life.[118]
In a 2022 interview, Vance said: "I'd like it to be primarily a state issue. Ohio is going to want to have a different abortion policy from California, from New York, and I think that's reasonable. I want Ohio to be able to make its own decisions, and I want Ohio's elected legislators to make those decisions. But I think it's fine to sort of set some minimum national standard." He did not specify whether by "standard" he meant a minimum level of access, restriction, or both.[119]
In June 2024, the Supreme Court at least temporarily preserved access to mifepristone,[120] after which Trump said during a debate that he "agree[d] with their decision" and would not "block" the drug.[121] In July, a week before Vance was announced as Trump's running mate, Vance told NBC's Meet the Press that he likewise supported access to mifepristone.[120]
Vance has been called a natalist or pro-natalist due to his support for the traditional nuclear family, the institution of marriage, and the importance of an active role for the state in encouraging and enabling family-formation and raising the national fertility rate.[122][123][124][125]
In a 2021 speech to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Vance blamed "the childless left" for America's woes, accusing it of lacking a "physical commitment to the future of this country."[126] He praised conservative Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán for encouraging married couples to have children and said that parents should "have a bigger say in how democracy functions" than non-parents.[126] Vance said, "We should worry that in America, family formation, our birth rates, a ton of indicators of family health have collapsed", and asked, "Why can't we actually promote family formation?"[127]
He further asked, "Why is this just a normal fact of … life, for the leaders of our country to be people who don't have a personal and direct stake in it via their own offspring?"[127] Vance argued that "The fact that we're not having enough babies, the fact that we're not having enough children, is a crisis in this country. It's a crisis because it makes our media more miserable. It's a crisis because it doesn't give our leaders enough of an investment in the future of their country. And it's a crisis because we know that babies are good […] A country that has children is a healthy country that's worth living in. We care about children because we're not sociopaths and we don't want to live in a society of sociopaths."[128]
In September 2021, while speaking at Pacifica Christian High School in California, Vance said:
This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that, like, "well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally—you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that's going to make people happier in the long term."[129]
Vice wrote that Vance "seemed to suggest that in some cases, 'even violent' marriages should continue." In response to Vice, Vance claimed that rates of domestic violence had "skyrocketed" in recent years due to what he called "modern society's war on families", although in recent decades, rates of domestic violence have decreased.[130][131] A strategist for Vance called Vice's characterization “extremely dishonest" and said it was "preposterous" to claim that Vance supports people staying in abusive relationships given that he was himself "the victim of domestic abuse when he was a kid".[132]
Vance holds traditional views regarding women in the workplace.[133] In a 2022 post on X, he wrote: "If your worldview tells you that it's bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle at the New York Times or Goldman Sachs, you've been had."[134]
Vance opposes the Respect for Marriage Act,[98][135] which recognized same-sex marriage at the federal level. He said: "I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, but I don't think the gay marriage issue is alive right now. I'm not one of these guys who's looking to try to take people's families and rip them apart."[136]
Vance proposed a bill that would make gender-affirming care for minors a federal felony and block taxpayer funds from being used for it, saying, "Under no circumstances should doctors be allowed to perform these gruesome, irreversible operations on underage children."[102]
Vance has argued that failing to secure the United States' southern border has fueled the US opioid epidemic by enabling illegal immigration and drug trafficking into the country, "orphaning an entire generation of kids".[137] He is a critic of mass immigration, claiming that it drives down working-class Americans' wages, increases house prices, and increases strain on social security.[138] He opposes granting legal amnesty to illegal immigrants in the United States and argued that corporations use illegal immigration as a source of cheap labor to undercut the domestic American labor market.[112]
Vance once admonished Trump for demonizing immigrants but has repeatedly called the effects of illegal immigration "dirty".[139][140] He has supported Trump's proposal for a wall along the southern border and rejected the idea that advocates for the wall are racist. Vance has proposed spending $3 billion to finish Trump's wall.[141][142]
In 2022, he told Tucker Carlson that Democrats "have decided that they can't win reelection in 2022 unless they bring a large number of new voters to replace the voters that are already here."[143] This led to Representative Tim Ryan's allegations that Vance was endorsing the far-right, white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, according to which there is an effort to replace white Americans with immigrants.[144][143] Ryan later lost to Vance in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Ohio. During his 2022 campaign, Vance said that President Joe Biden was flooding Ohio with illegal drugs by not enforcing security at the southern border.[145] The New York Times called the claim "blatantly false".[146]
In 2023, Vance introduced a bill that would make English the United States' official language.[147][148]
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Speaking at the 2024 Munich Security Conference, Vance said the U.S. did not want to pull out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but argued the U.S. should shift its focus to East Asia, and that certain European and NATO member countries were not spending enough for their own security.[149][150]
Vance is a strong supporter of the State of Israel and has said "culturally, morally, politically, it is a real ally in the sense that we're not just sort of sharing interests, we're actually sharing common values."[96]
Vance has been called a "steadfast supporter of Israel throughout the country's war in Gaza".[112] He supports U.S. funding to Israel in the Israel–Hamas war.[151] Vance has criticized the Biden administration for "depriving the Israelis of the precision-guided weapons" the country needs, and said that Hamas bears full responsibility for all civilian deaths.[152][153] He criticized Biden in April 2024 for "micromanaging" Israeli actions in the war, saying, "you've got to, first of all, enable Israel to actually finish the job".[154]
Vance repeated his criticism of the Biden administration in July 2024, saying: "Number one, you want Israel to get this war over and as quickly as possible because the longer it goes on, the harder their situation becomes. But second, after the war you want to reinvigorate that peace process between Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Jordanians, and so forth".[155] More broadly, he has said, "We want the Israelis and the Sunnis to police their own region of the world."[156]
When asked in October 2023 whether he would support military action against Iran after militias allegedly connected to Iran attacked U.S. troops, Vance said it would be a "mistake", citing concern about significant escalation.[157][158] After his nomination as Trump's running mate, Vance praised the 2020 assassination of Qasem Soleimani, adding: "If you're gonna punch the Iranians, punch them hard."[159]
Vance is a vocal critic of U.S. military aid to Ukraine in the ongoing Russo–Ukrainian War and has faced bipartisan criticism for his views on Ukraine.[160][161][162] In an interview with Steve Bannon, Vance said, "I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other".[163]
In an April 2024 New York Times essay, he wrote, "I voted against this package in the Senate and remain opposed to virtually any proposal for the United States to continue funding this war. Mr. Biden has failed to articulate even basic facts about what Ukraine needs and how this aid will change the reality on the ground. The most fundamental question: How much does Ukraine need and how much can we actually provide?"[164] He further argued that "By committing to a defensive strategy, Ukraine can preserve its precious military manpower, stop the bleeding and provide time for negotiations to commence. But this would require both the American and Ukrainian leadership to accept that Mr. Zelensky's stated goal for the war—a return to 1991 boundaries—is fantastical."[164] He has said it is in America's interest to accept that "Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians".[165]
In December 2023, Vance was criticized for calling for the suspension of further aid to Ukraine because he said it would be used so its ministers "can buy a bigger yacht".[166] Vance has criticized the Ukrainian government for corruption and the Biden administration for not properly auditing military and financial aid to Ukraine.[167] A Vance spokesperson said, "For years, everyone in the West recognized that Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Somehow everyone forgot that just as we started sending them billions of dollars in foreign aid."[37]
In a May 2024 interview with the New York Times, Vance said:
What I would like to do, and what I think fundamentally is achievable here with American leadership—but you never know till you have the conversation—is you freeze the territorial lines somewhere close to where they are right now. That's No. 1. No. 2 is you guarantee both Kyiv's independence but also its neutrality. It's the fundamental thing the Russians have asked from the beginning. I'm not naïve here. I think the Russians have asked for a lot of things dishonestly, but neutrality is clearly something that they see as existential for them. And then three, there's going to have to be some American security assistance over the long term. I think those three things are certainly achievable, yes.[168]
He also confirmed his view that for Russia to conquer Ukraine is not in the interest of the United States.[168]
Vance supported the Biden administration’s legislation allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.[169] In 2022, he cosponsored a bill to cap the price of insulin, and he supports permitting the importing of medical drugs from overseas.[170] He has said that he has no intention of repealing the Affordable Care Act.[170] Vance has suggested he would support legislative efforts to provide universal pregnancy healthcare coverage.[171]
Vance has opposed cuts to Social Security, but he has argued in favor of reform on the basis of the trend toward an aging population. He has said, "I don't support cuts to social security or Medicare and think privatizing Social Security is a bad idea".[172]
In a June 2024 interview, Vance said:
If the argument here is we have to cut Social Security, then what you're effectively saying is we just have to privatize what is currently a public problem of who pays for the older generation. And I don't know why people think that you solve many problems by taking a bunch of elderly people and saying, "You're on your own."[173]
Vance has indicated his preference for encouraging the unemployed and economically inactive back into work and a higher birth rate.[173]
Vance has expressed concern that large tech companies have too much influence in politics and the flow of information and has called to "break up" Google, as well as implying he believes Meta should be split up.[174][175] He has said that Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan is "doing a pretty good job", citing her antitrust enforcement against tech firms.[174][176] Vance and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the Stop Subsidizing Giant Mergers Act, which would end tax-free treatment for corporate mergers and acquisitions of companies above a certain threshold.[177][178]
Vance has downplayed the effects of climate change. In response to a radio host who asserted there was no climate crisis, Vance said, "No, I don't think there is, either."[179] Vance has said, "If you think that man-made climate change is a catastrophic problem, the solution for it is for us to produce more of our own energy, including fossil fuels, here in the United States".[180]
Vance has argued that environmental regulations have caused a large number of manufacturing jobs to be outsourced to other countries.[181] He has proposed a bill that would repeal certain tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act for electric vehicles and institute a $7,500 tax credit for gas-powered cars manufactured in the U.S.[182]
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Vance was an outspoken critic of Republican nominee Donald Trump. In a February 18, 2016 USA Today column, he wrote, "Trump's actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd."[183] In April 2024, Vance stated that "Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office".[184] In the Atlantic and on a PBS show hosted by Charlie Rose,[185] Vance called Trump "cultural heroin"[186] and "an opioid of the masses."[187][188] In August 2016, Vance asserted that Trump is "noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place."[184] In October 2016, he called Trump "reprehensible" in a post on Twitter[189] and called himself a "never-Trump guy."[190][191]
According to some sources, in private message in 2016, he said “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad or that he’s America’s Hitler.”[192][193][194] Vance said he did not vote for Trump in 2016,[195] but instead for independent candidate Evan McMullin.[196]
By February 2018, Vance began changing his opinion, saying Trump "is one of the few political leaders in America that recognizes the frustration that exists in large parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and so forth".[197]
Vance supported Trump in 2020.[198] In July 2021, he apologized for calling Trump "reprehensible" and deleted posts from 2016 from his Twitter account that were critical of him.[199][200] Vance said he now thought Trump was a good president and expressed regret about his criticism during the 2016 election.[189] Vance visited Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and Peter Thiel ahead of an official announcement regarding his U.S. Senate campaign.[53]
In October 2021, Vance reiterated Trump's false claims of election fraud, saying that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election because of widespread voter fraud.[201] On April 15, 2022, Trump endorsed Vance for the U.S. Senate.[190]
After historian Robert Kagan wrote a November 2023 Washington Post opinion piece titled "A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending", Vance wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter suggesting Kagan be prosecuted for promoting "open rebellion" by Democrat-controlled states. Kagan said that his piece did not advocate rebellion and remarked, "It is revealing that their first instinct when attacked by a journalist is to suggest that they be locked up."[202][203]
On June 30, 2024, on Face the Nation, Vance said, "I believe that the president has broad pardon authority ... but more importantly, I think the president has immunity".[204]
Vance has said, "As an abstract matter, yes, I support collective bargaining."[205] He visited the picket lines of the 2023 United Auto Workers strike to support them, saying that workers deserve a "fair shake".[206]
Vance opposes the PRO Act, which expands protections related to employees' rights to organize and collectively bargain, instead voicing support for proposals by the conservative group American Compass, which includes workers' councils and sectoral bargaining.[207][208] Based on his voting record in the Senate, the AFL-CIO has scored him at 0% on its Legislative Scorecard.[209] Teamsters President Sean O'Brien has praised Vance and other Republicans for "listening to unions and standing up to corporations".[210] Vance has criticized "right-to-work" anti-trade union laws.[211]
In 2014, Vance married Usha Chilukuri in Kentucky, in an interfaith marriage ceremony;[212][207] she being a Hindu and he a Christian.[212][213] They have three children together.[214][215] In the mid-2010s, Vance and his wife lived in San Francisco.[216] In 2017, Vance received an honorary degree from Centre College.[217]
In 2017, before Obama left office, Vance wrote in the The New York Times that he respected Obama on a personal level, because Obama had childhood struggles similar to his.[218]
Vance was raised in a "conservative, evangelical" branch of Protestantism, but by September 2016, he was "thinking very seriously about converting to Catholicism" but was "not an active participant" in any particular Christian denomination.[219] 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.[220]
In an interview with Catholic magazine 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".[221]
