James David Vance (2 August 1984-), born James Donald Bowman, was a Republican US Senator from Ohio from 3 January 2023 to 10 January 2025 (succeeding Rob Portman) and Vice President of the United States from 20 January 2025 (succeeding Kamala Harris).
Biography[]
James Donald Bowman was born in Middletown, Ohio in 1984, and he was raised by his grandparents before being adopted by his mother's third husband. He served in the US Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 during the Iraq War, performing public affairs activities and attaining the rank of Corporal. Vance worked for Republican state senator Bob Schuler while attending Ohio State University, and, while attending Yale, he wrote his autobiography, Hillbilly Elegy, about his Rust Belt upbringing; his book was published in 2016 and became a bestseller. Vance came to work for Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital venture capital firm, and he became a CNN contributor in 2017. Vance was initially opposed to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy and called Trump "reprehensible", but he experienced a political conversion during Trump's presidency and became a right-wing populist. He claimed that the left was waging a class war against the middle and working classes and an economic war against conservatives as part of their "culture wars", enthusiastically supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, falsely claimed that President Joe Biden was flooding Ohio with illegal drugs, and called for a purge of leftists from the United States government should Trump win the 2024 presidential election (stating, "Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people."). He ultimately defeated Democrat Tim Ryan to win the Senate seat.
During his time in the Senate, Vance opposed abortion and same-sex marriage, and supported bans on pornography and transgender healthcare for minors. He also distinguished himself as one of the most anti-Ukrainian members of the US Congress, steadfastly opposing American military aid to the country amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 15 July 2024, Donald Trump chose Vance as his running mate ahead of that November's presidential election, a controversial choice due to Vance's strong support for the reactionary Project 2025. He and Trump were elected with 49.8% of the vote and 312 electoral votes to the Democrat Kamala Harris' 48.3% of the vote and 226 electroal votes.