J D Vance Popular Books

J D Vance Biography & Facts

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. Vance was a critic of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, becoming a member of the Never Trump movement, but changed his rhetoric after announcing his candidacy for the Senate. During his tenure in the Senate, he has been a staunch Trump loyalist and defender of Trump's most authoritarian assertions. 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 his grandparents' surname, Vance. 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 Public Affairs Officer (PAO) 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. Early career After working at a corporate law firm, Vance moved to San Francisco to work in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. He served as a principal at Peter Thiel's 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. The New York Times called it "one of the six best books to help understand Trump's win". The Washington Post called him the "voice of the Rust Belt", while The New Republic criticized him as "liberal media's favorite white trash–splainer" and the "false prophet of blue America." Economist William Easterly, a West Virginia native, criticized the book, writing, "Sloppy analysis of collections of people—coastal elites, flyover America, Muslims, immigrants, people without college degrees, you name it—has become routine. And it's killing our politics." In December 2016, Vance indicated that he planned to move to Ohio to start a nonprofit, potentially run for office, and work on combating drug addiction in the Rust Belt. 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, popular among those on the right. U.S. Senate 2022 campaign In early 2018, Vance reportedly considered running for U.S. Senate against Sherrod Brown, but decided not to. In March 2021, Peter Thiel gave $10 million to Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC created in February to support a potential Vance candidacy; Robert Mercer also gave an undisclosed amount. In April, Vance expressed interest in running for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Rob Portman. In May, he launched an exploratory committee. In July 2021, Vance officially entered the race; it was his first campaign for public office. On May 3, 2022, he won the Republican primary with 32% of the vote, defeating multiple candidates, including Josh Mandel (23%) and Matt Dolan (22%). In the general election on November 8, Vance defeated Democratic nominee Tim Ryan with 53.1% of the vote to Ryan's 46.9%. Tenure Vance was sworn in to the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2023, as a member of the 118th United States Congress. 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 S.... Discover the J D Vance popular books. Find the top 100 most popular J D Vance books.