J. D. Vance facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
J. D. Vance
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Official portrait, 2023
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| United States Senator from Ohio |
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| Assumed office January 3, 2023 Serving with Sherrod Brown
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| Preceded by | Rob Portman |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
James Donald Bowman
August 2, 1984 Middletown, Ohio, U.S. |
| Other names | James Hamel Vance |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse |
Usha Chilukuri
(m. 2014) |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Ohio State University (BA) Yale University (JD) |
| 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 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. He defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan in the general election.
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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 the surname Vance in honor of his grandparents.
Vance was educated at 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 as a combat correspondent with 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.
Career
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After working at a corporate law firm, Vance moved to San Francisco to work in the tech industry. He served as a principal at Peter Thiel's venture capital 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.
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, and which starred 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, a right-wing alternative to YouTube.
U.S. Senate
Vance was sworn in to the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2023. 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 has gained significant media attention for his response to the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. He was criticized for a delayed response to the derailment, with an official statement from his office released on February 13. 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, 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, Vance, Brown, and Senators John Fetterman, Bob Casey, Josh Hawley, and Marco Rubio proposed legislation to prevent another rail derailment like the one in East Palestine. The bill has received bipartisan Senate support.
Committee assignments For the 117th 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;
• 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 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."
Immigration
Vance once admonished Trump for demonizing immigrants, but has repeatedly called illegal immigration "dirty". 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. 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. He has also proposed spending $3 billion to finish Trump's wall.
Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023
Vance was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
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 have lived in San Francisco, where they were active in community gardening.
