What Does J.D. Vance Bring To Trump’s Ticket?
– By Lisa Rutherford –
I’ve written about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. It seems appropriate to write about J. D. Vance, too – everyone else is! We all know enough about Trump, too much for some, so I’m focusing on those with less familiar backgrounds.
Until his recent selection as Trump’s VP choice, Vance was probably best known for his memoir Hillbilly Elegy that was also made into a movie and refers to his Appalachian roots. I’ve seen the movie but some movies have misrepresented books terribly, so I intend to read the book. However, my sister who has read the book and watched the movie says that the movie tracks the book well while leaving out details. I want details!
Vance was born in 1984 and was raised in Middleton, Ohio, which is not in Appalachia. He was raised mostly by his grandmother – or “Mamaw – since his mother, who was a nurse, was also an addict, though cleaned up now. His Mamaw was from Jackson, Kentucky, which is in Appalachia. Hence, the Appalachian connection. It was his Mamaw’s influence that seems to have had the greatest effect on him.
He joined the Marines after high school, serving a brief non-combat stint from 2003 to 2007 as a combat correspondent in a non-combat role while in Iraq. Following his time in the military, he attended Ohio State University and graduated in 2009. Then he attended Yale Law School, graduating in 2013. Following graduation, he worked for Republican Senator John Cornyn and worked as a law clerk in a U.S. District Court in Kentucky. In 2016 he published his memoir. He worked as a corporate lawyer followed by what some call a “meteoric” rise in Silicon Valley as a venture capitalist.
He opposed Trump during the 2016 election and wrote that his attitude toward Trump went “back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a–hole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.” In fact, he was a “never Trumper.” Following the release of the Access Hollywood tape detailing Trump talking about groping women, Vance wrote: “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.” In a 2016 Tweet, he wrote, “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.”
According to a 2018 Financial Times article, written when Vance was moving his family to Columbus, Ohio, he excels at storytelling. That probably helped him as a venture capitalist hobnobbing with the moneyed elite. The 2018 article highlights his distrust of Trump even at that time, which given Trump’s need for absolute dedication, has apparently vanished from Vance’s current opinion. In fact, the Vance described in the 2018 Financial Times article is a man I could have agreed with more than the one we see and hear today, although it would depend on the topic. He was, at that time, against giving tax breaks to the rich and cutting the social safety net. While in Columbus, Vance continued his work as a venture capitalist with a focus on helping companies such as one in Indianapolis that made cheap home tests for people to check for lead in their water. In 2016, he started Our Ohio Renewal, a non-profit advocacy organization focused on education, addiction, and other “social ills” but it closed after just two years.
His concerns about Trump have apparently evaporated. In 2021, he backpedaled on all the negative comments. He has supported Trump’s actions regarding the January 6 attack on the Capitol. After the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump, Vance posted on X (formerly Twitter) regarding Biden’s comments about Trump, “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” I guess he doesn’t see the connection, however, between Trump’s rhetoric leading up to January 6.
Vance has only been in the Senate as junior Ohio senator since 2023, and his efforts there seem rather sparse at this point. But he has made plenty of statements for which he has had to explain himself or which are clearly wrong.
Vance has criticized the military record of Harris’ VP candidate, Tim Walz, by noting that Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005 just before they were ordered to Iraq, in spite of Walz’ 24-year career in the guard and in spite of the fact that it’s reported he had turned in his retirement paperwork months before the deployment notice. According the Fox News, “The Minnesota National Guard told Fox News that Walz’s unit was not given deployment orders to Iraq until July and he had put his retirement papers in five to seven months prior to his retirement in May 2005.” Neither Walz nor Vance had combat experience and Vance, as noted earlier, was only in the Marines for four years.
His 2021 “childless cat lady” comment has really enflamed a lot of people, women and men, alike. His point, he explained, was that this country is ruled to a large extent – “via the Democrats and the corporate oligarchs” – by women who have no children, are “miserable at their own lives” and, so, have no interest in the future of this country. According to Pew Research, “Women make up more than a quarter (28%) of all members of the 118th Congress.” That means that nearly three-quarters are men making the decisions, not “childless cat ladies.” As for the corporations Vance references, it’s true that in 2020 a record number of women became CEOs, but that’s just 8.2 percent of Fortune 500 companies. In 2022, that number reached 9.4 percent. I think it’s a huge and unwarranted assumption that people – women or men – who have no children have no concern about this country. Interestingly, he referred to Pete Buttigieg, too, but Buttigieg has two adopted children.
His “childless cat ladies” comment ties into his thinking that families with children should have more voting rights than those with no children, as if, again, those with children have more stake in the country. He’s suggested that families should get $5000 per child rather than $2000 which would raise the country’s debt.
Vance’s position on abortion – another hot topic – has evolved somewhat. In 2022 when Roe v. Wade was overturned and he was asked about exceptions for abortions, he was firm that unborn babies should not be thought of as an “inconvenience” no matter what the circumstances. Now that he’s Trump’s VP choice, he says he supports the abortion pill mifepristone but, taking a page from Trump’s book, feels the decision should be left to states.
He opposes elitism but his background other than his early upbringing certainly paints him as elite according to my definition. In fact, according to the Financial Times article, he seems torn when it comes to this issue. I don’t know how his son is doing now, but in 2018 Vance was concerned about who his son would feel more comfortable with, his Mamaw and other Appalachian relatives or his Yale friends. He hoped it would be people like his family, but apparently, he had much contact with the elites at Yale that conservatives so like to bash.
The term “elite” has evolved over my lifetime. It used to mean up versus down – a social status designation. Now, it’s come to means left versus right – liberal ideas versus conservative. This change happened about fifty years ago when the conservative movement took the term and gave it a new meaning that they could use against the opposition.
He supports Trump on issues such as immigration and stated that “100% of net job creation under the Biden administration has gone to the foreign-born.” However, since Biden took office, the number of native-born Americans who are employed has increased by nearly 7.4 million, while foreign-born Americans employed has risen by about 5.6 million. And although immigrants who cross the border illegally cannot vote in federal elections, Vance claimed in 2022 that Biden’s open-border policy was allowing more Democrat voters to pour into the country.
Vance’s position on the race issue is interesting and a little puzzling. Vance has been criticized by white supremacist, Nick Fuentes, because of Vance’s wife’s Indian heritage. Having a wife of color seems progressive on Vance’s part. However, the fact that Trump hangs out with characters such as Nick Fuentes and Kanye West at his Mar-a-Lago compound makes me concerned about Vance, who asserts he’s more concerned with how Trump treats his own wife than what Fuentes or others have to say. He seems to ignore the message that Trump’s time with white supremacists sends and shows a naivete about politics or worse. And, although Vance’s assertion that he likes Trump’s willingness to talk to anyone but not necessarily support their views may have some validity, again, misses the point about the messaging. If Trump is so willing to “talk to anyone” have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and others on the extreme left been invited to Mar-a-Lago to “chat” with Trump? I dare say they have not.
Like Trump, Vance supports having the president influence the Federal Reserve (central bank aka “the Fed”). Apparently, he and Trump and others who would like to undermine the independence of the Fed do not know that although the Fed operates independently of the federal government “…the Fed is also a quasi-governmental agency with a board of governors selected by the President and approved by Congress.” So, the President already has influence there. Perhaps someone should tell Trump and Vance?
And, there are examples of presidential pressure that reveal what can happen. President Richard Nixon exerted pressure on Fed Chair Arthur Burns in 1973 prior to the election. That was widely blamed for accelerating inflation that took Chair Paul Volcker until the 1980s to control. Other current conservative leaders teach a lesson, too. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan created a mess after he forced that country’s bank to cut rates to help control inflation. Best to let the experts, not politicians, decide when it’s time to cut or increase interest rates. Even they can err but at least they’re trained.
Since Trump and Vance apparently want the ability to cut interest rates to help Americans deal with the high-cost of homes and goods, how does that square with Trump’s trade policy that includes isolating America, which would reduce imports and push up the cost of goods that many Americans rely on?
So, back to my original question: What does Vance bring to Trump’s ticket?
