AUGUSTA, Maine — Eight years ago, JD Vance was doing frequent interviews in the wake of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a bestselling memoir that was seen by many as essential to understanding the rising political appeal of Donald Trump.
Vance, who was elected to a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio in 2022, is the former president’s running mate in the November race against President Joe Biden. It caps the transition in the 39-year old’s public persona from a harsh Trump critic to an embodiment of how the Republican Party has remade itself in Trump’s image.
One example is a 2016 interview with the Portland-based radio station WGAN. Host Matt Gagnon, who is the CEO of the conservative Maine Policy Institute and writes a column for the Bangor Daily News, reflected on his conversation with Vance and reaired portions of it on Tuesday, a day after Trump selected Vance.
Vance’s book exploded after he did an interview with The American Conservative on his book, which explored his poor upbringing in Ohio and his family’s history of working-class jobs and drug and alcohol abuse. The publication called it “an extraordinary testimony to the brokenness of the white working class.”
Gagnon had read the review and the book before booking Vance on the show. The interview mostly steers clear of politics, but it ends with the future senator discussing the popularity of anti-establishment candidates including Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“They’re tapping into that feeling that, ‘Look, the conversations you’ve been having, the things you’ve been doing, are not working, and we need to shake things up,’” he said. “And I think that people want to shake things up so much that a lot of folks back home have put their trust … in Donald Trump.”
At that time, Vance labeled himself as a “never Trump” person and told another interviewer that Trump was “noxious” and leading the white working class to “a dark place.” In text messages from that period, he said the future president could be “America’s Hitler.”
But Vance aligned himself firmly with Trump during his 2022 run, winning the seat with his endorsement and embracing pet issues, including a hard line on immigration. In the Senate, he has opposed establishment figures on funding for Ukraine’s war with Russia while taking traditionally left-wing views on trade that Trump took mainstream in the party.
Vance has also said he would support a national abortion ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy, something Trump has said he does not support. He also said he would not have voted to certify the 2020 election results, as former Vice President Mike Pence did over Trump’s objections.
The running mate has been explaining his past Trump opposition as well, including in a Monday interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News.
“I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president and he changed my mind,” Vance said. “I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans, because again he delivered that peace and prosperity.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.
