In the 2016 Presidential race, JD Vance called Donald Trump an “idiot” and “reprehensible” and even compared him to Hitler in private communications. At the time, he was a new author, whose autobiography Hillbilly Elegy had topped bestseller lists.
Following the Republican’s shock win over Hillary Clinton, many pundits and media outlets touted the book as a key to understanding the shift in white working-class voters away from the Democrats in rural and industrial regions.
Eight years later, and Vance has just been confirmed as the official Vice-Presidential candidate alongside Trump for the upcoming US elections, after only taking up his first political position in 2023 as the Junior Republican Senator for Ohio.
The Oscar-nominated 2020 Hollywood film adaptation of Vance’s’ book, starring Any Adams and Glenn Close as his mother and grandmother, is available to watch now on Netflix.
Vance was born into poverty in Middletown, Ohio, and his autobiography describes the hardships and increasingly hopelessness of communities trapped in poorly paid, physical labour.
His mother Beverley and her family were from Breathitt County, Kentucky, where a third of the population in 2000 were living below the poverty line and traditional Appalachian values like loyalty and love of country mixed with violence and verbal abuse.
Vance’s book explores a growing distrust of an American Dream perceived as corrupted by elites, liberal values and Obama’s welfare systems, where it did not pay to try and work hard or better yourself and opportunities to do so were few.
In 2016, Vance said to USA TODAY of Donald Trump, “I love the way he criticizes party elites, but really dislike the candidate himself. I’m definitely not supporting Trump, though I probably won’t vote for Hillary either — she just seems like she doesn’t care about the people I grew up around.”
This disillusionment and sense of being left behind fuelled the shift away from the perceived educated, elitest, patronising liberals of the Democrat party and was exploited by Trump and his party.
Far more so than Trump, Vance embodies the American Dream. His mother was a lifelong addict, his upbringing was unstable and underprivileged. He joined the Marine Corps and served as a military journalist during the Iraq war before and then the US Military funded his political science and philosophy studies at Ohio State University.
From there he went to Yale Law School and then worked in the tech industry as a venture capitalist around the same time as he released his book.
The inspiring story of grit, perseverance and hard work attracted Hollywood director Ron Howard. The book and film were praised (and criticised) by many liberal outlets while the themes played extremely well to broader right-wing and working-class demographics.
Since his election last year, the 39-year-old has increasingly aligned himself with Trump, walking back his earlier denunciations and being visible and present at the former President’s recent trial in New York.
JD Vance, his life story, his youth and what he represents are an extremely potent force, and worth watching closely over the next six months. The film, and original book, are a great place to start.
