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J. D. Vance

James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman; August 2, 1984) is a venture capitalist, author, and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Ohio since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he came to prominence with his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

Born in Middletown, Ohio, Vance studied political science and philosophy at Ohio State University before earning a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. His memoir, which describes his upbringing in Middletown and his family's Appalachian values, became a New York Times bestseller and attracted significant press attention during the 2016 United States presidential election. Vance launched his first political campaign for Ohio's Senate seat in 2021 and won the Republican nomination after being endorsed by former President Donald Trump. He defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan in the general election.

Vance was a critic of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, becoming a member of the Never Trump movement, but changed his position after announcing his candidacy for the Senate. During his tenure in the Senate, Vance has been a staunch Trump loyalist.

Early life and education

James David Vance was born on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio, between Cincinnati and Dayton, as James Donald Bowman, the son of Donald Bowman and Bev Vance. Of Scots-Irish descent, his mother and father divorced when Vance was a toddler. Shortly afterward, he was adopted by his mother's third husband. Vance and his sister were raised primarily by his grandparents, James and Bonnie Vance, whom they called "Mamaw and Papaw." J. D. later went by the name James Hamel, his stepfather's surname, until adopting his grandparents' surname, Vance.

Vance attended Middletown High School, a public high school in his hometown. After graduating, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Iraq War in the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Vance later attended Ohio State University, graduating in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in political science and philosophy. While at Ohio State, he worked for Republican Ohio State Senator Bob Schuler.

After graduating from Ohio State, Vance attended Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. During his first year, his professor Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, persuaded him to write his memoir. Vance graduated from Yale in 2013 with a Juris Doctor.

Early career

After working at a corporate law firm, Vance moved to San Francisco to work in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. He served as a principal at Peter Thiel's firm, Mithril Capital.

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 and winner of the 2017 Audie Award for Nonfiction. The New York Times called it "one of the six best books to help understand Trump's win". The Washington Post called him the "voice of the Rust Belt", while The New Republic criticized him as "liberal media's favorite white trash–splainer" and the "false prophet of blue America." 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."

In December 2016, Vance indicated that he planned to move to Ohio to start a nonprofit, potentially run for office, and work on combating drug addiction in the Rust Belt.

In 2017, Vance joined Revolution LLC, an investment firm founded by AOL cofounder Steve Case, as an investment partner, where he was tasked with expanding the "Rise of the Rest" initiative, which focuses on growing investments in under-served regions outside the Silicon Valley and New York City tech bubbles.

In January 2017, Vance became a CNN contributor. In April 2017, Ron Howard signed on to direct a film version of Hillbilly Elegy, which Netflix released in 2020, starring Owen Asztalos and Gabriel Basso as Vance.

In 2019, Vance co-founded Narya Capital in Cincinnati with financial backing from Thiel, Eric Schmidt, and Marc Andreessen. In 2020, he raised $93 million for the firm. With Thiel and former Trump adviser Darren Blanton, Vance has invested in the Canadian online video platform Rumble, popular with the political right.

U.S. Senate

2022 campaign

In early 2018, Vance considered running for U.S. Senate against Sherrod Brown, but decided not to. In March 2021, Peter Thiel gave $10 million to Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC created in February to support a potential Vance candidacy; Robert Mercer also gave an undisclosed amount. In April, Vance expressed interest in running for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Rob Portman. In May, he launched an exploratory committee.

In July 2021, Vance officially entered the race; it was his first campaign for public office. On May 3, 2022, he won the Republican primary with 32% of the vote, defeating multiple candidates, including Josh Mandel (23%) and Matt Dolan (22%). In the general election on November 8, Vance defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan with 53.1% of the vote to Ryan's 46.9%.

Tenure

Vance was sworn in to the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2023, as a member of the 118th United States Congress. He is the first U.S. senator from Ohio to take office without holding 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. His office released an official statement on February 13, 2023, ten days after the derailment. Vance and others countered that he had responded to the derailment the day after it occurred, sooner than fellow Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.

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. On March 1, 2023, Vance, Brown, and Senators John Fetterman, Bob Casey, Josh Hawley, and Marco Rubio proposed legislation to prevent derailments like the one in East Palestine. The bill received bipartisan Senate support.

Committee assignments

For the 118th United States Congress, Vance was named to three Senate committees. They are:

Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
- Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection subcommittee
- Housing, Transportation, and Community Development subcommittee
- Securities, Insurance, and Investment subcommittee
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- Communications, Media, and Broadband subcommittee
- Oceans, Fisheries, Climate Change, and Manufacturing subcommittee
- Space and Science subcommittee
Senate Special Committee on Aging

Political positions

Vance has been called a populist conservative.

Social issues

Vance opposes abortion and he has indicated that he may support a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks. He has more recently said that abortion laws should be set by the states. When asked whether abortion laws should include exceptions for rape and incest, he said, "two wrong[s] don't make a right."

Vance opposes the Respect for Marriage Act and has 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."

Vance has proposed a bill that would make gender-affirming care for minors a federal felony and block taxpayer funds from being used for it, saying in a statement, "Under no circumstances should doctors be allowed to perform these gruesome, irreversible operations on underage children."

Immigration and border security

Vance once admonished Trump for demonizing immigrants, but has repeatedly called the effects of illegal immigration "dirty". He has supported Trump's proposal for a wall along the southern border and rejected the idea that advocates for the border wall are racist. Vance has proposed spending $3 billion to finish Trump's wall. 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." This led to political opponent Tim Ryan's allegations that Vance was endorsing the white supremacist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, according to which there is an effort to replace white Americans with immigrants. During his 2022 U.S. Senate campaign, Vance said that President Joe Biden was flooding Ohio with illegal drugs by not enforcing security at the southern border, a claim The New York Times called "blatantly false".

In 2023, Vance introduced a bill that would make English the official language of the United States.

Foreign policy

Speaking at the 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 are not spending enough for their own security.

Vance is a vocal critic of U.S. military aid to Ukraine in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. He has said it is in America's interest to accept that "Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians". Vance has faced bipartisan criticism for his views on Ukraine. In December 2023, he 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".

Vance supports U.S. funding to Israel in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. When asked whether he would support military action against Iran after militias allegedly connected to Iran attacked U.S. troops, Vance said that it would be a "mistake", citing concern it would be a significant escalation.

Child-free marriages, divorce, and domestic abuse

In a 2021 speech to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Vance blamed "the childless left" for America's woes. He praised conservative Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban for encouraging married couples to have children and said that parents should "have a bigger say in how democracy functions" than non-parents.

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.'" 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". In recent decades, rates of domestic violence have decreased. A strategist for Vance called Vice's characterization misleading and said Vance does not support people staying in abusive relationships.

Antitrust laws

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. He has called Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan a Biden administration member who is "doing a pretty good job", citing her antitrust enforcement against tech firms. 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.

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Vance was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

Trade policy

Vance has supported protectionist reforms. He has advocated imposing tariffs on China and proposed a bill to remove China’s most favored nation status.

Climate change and the environment

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." He 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", implying that outsourcing energy production would cause more pollution. Vance has also argued that environmental regulations have caused a large number of manufacturing jobs to be outsourced to other countries. He has proposed a bill that would repeal certain tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act for electric vehicles and would create a $7,500 tax credit for gas-powered cars manufactured in the U.S.

Relationship with Donald Trump

During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Vance was an outspoken critic of Republican nominee Donald Trump. In a February 2016 USA Today column, he wrote that "Trump's actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd." In the Atlantic and on the PBS show hosted by Charlie Rose, Vance called Trump "cultural heroin" and "an opioid of the masses." In October 2016, he called Trump "reprehensible" in a post on Twitter, and called himself a "never-Trump guy." In a private message on Facebook he called Trump "America's Hitler".

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".

Vance supported Trump in 2020. In July 2021, he apologized for calling Trump "reprehensible" and deleted posts from 2016 from his Twitter account that were critical of him. Vance said that he now thought Trump was a good president and expressed regret about his criticism during the 2016 election. Vance visited Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and Peter Thiel ahead of an official announcement regarding his U.S. Senate campaign.

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. On April 15, 2022, Trump endorsed Vance for U.S. Senate.

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."

Labor unions

Vance has said, "As an abstract matter, yes, I support collective bargaining." But he 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. Vance did speak in support the 2023 United Auto Workers strike.

Personal life

Vance has been married to a former law school classmate, Usha Chilukuri Vance, since 2014. They have three children. For much of his professional career, Vance and his family lived in San Francisco.

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. 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 described Catholic theology's influence on his political views.