JD Vance.Photo: Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Just as he was making an official declaration of his candidacy for the U.S. Senate,Hillbilly Elegyauthor and venture capitalist J.D. Vance made waves on social media for a different sort of reason as his campaign sign fell off the lectern moments before he delivered the news.
“Now I brought you all here for a big announcement,” Vance, 36, said while onstage at his first official event in Middletown, Ohio, on Thursday. “I guess it’s time that I actually get on to making the announcement part.”
Footage of the moment spread around social media, where it was seen hundreds of thousands of times. (Some Twitter usersturned itintoa punchline.)
“I think we need people in Washington who are fighters — and not just fighters, but smart fighters,” Vance said in his remarks on Thursday. “There are a lot of fighters in Washington, D.C. They just fight for the wrong things.”
His memoirHillbilly Elegydocumented his harrowing childhood in a poor Rust Belt town. The book was adapted into a Ron Howard-directed Netflix film starring Amy Adams as his volatile, troubled mother, Bev, and Glenn Close as Bev’s no-nonsense mom, Mamaw.
After growing up in Ohio, Vancejoined the Marinesbefore going on to attend Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He now runs a venture capital firm in Cincinnati.
Vance’s entry into an already competitive Ohio Senate race pits him against other well-funded Republican candidates, including former state treasurer Josh Mandel and former state party chair Jane Timken.
According toPolitico, Vance’s tonehas changedin the years since.
“J.D. really took the time to understand what was happening in the White House, in the Trump administration, so I don’t know how it’s not authentic,” a Republican allytoldTheWashington Examiner, citing Vance’s close relationships with other Republicans, including Tucker Carlson and Sen. Josh Hawley. “It’s been an evolution; it’s not been a light switch.”
Vance himself acknowledged as much in a June letter to a committee of the Ohio Republican Party.
“People ask me what changed, and it’s pretty simple: at the time, I didn’t believe that a Democrat from New York would be able to accomplish much,” hewrote, according to Bloomberg. “I was wrong, and importantly, the more I saw our ruling class from the inside, the more I realized he was right to attack them in the way he did.”
source: people.com
