kids encyclopedia robot

JD Vance facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
J. D. Vance
Senator Vance official portrait. 118th Congress.jpg
Official portrait, 2023
United States Senator
from Ohio
Assumed office
January 3, 2023
Serving with Sherrod Brown
Preceded by Rob Portman
Personal details
Born
James Donald Bowman

(1984-08-02) August 2, 1984 (age 40)
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)
Signature
Military service
Branch/service  United States Marine Corps
Rank Corporal
Unit 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing
Battles/wars Iraq War

James David "JD" Vance ( Bowman; formerly Hamel; born August 2, 1984) is an American politician, author, and Marine veteran who has served since 2023 as the junior United States senator from Ohio.

On July 15, 2024, during the 2024 Republican National Convention, Trump announced that he chose Vance as his running mate via a post on Truth Social.

Vance is the first millennial to be on a presidential ticket of a major party in the United States.

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

Small Talks DC- Securing the American Dream for Young Children (37629711710)
Vance in 2017

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.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: J. D. Vance para niños

kids search engine
JD Vance Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.