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JD Vance has officially become the vice president of the United States, after being sworn in at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
However, the vice president’s journey to the White House began when he released his ode to a forgotten Middle America in 2016 and became an instant literary icon.
Hillbilly Elegy, his memoir-cum-analysis of the Rust Belt’s decline, and a candid account of the poverty it had wrought, was a cult success which drew on his first-hand experience of violence and addiction.
The timing of the publication was significant. Mr Trump was making his longshot bid for the presidency the same year by tapping into the frustrations of working-class voters who felt left behind by a political elite.
Mr Trump’s surprise success made Mr Vance a useful intermediary between his blue-collar base and a bemused US news media.
Mr Vance held up his fist at the Republican convention, a tribute to how Trump responded after an attempt on his life – Julia Nikhinson
Both understood something many establishment politicians had failed to grasp: America’s working class was ready to leave the Democratic Party behind.
And yet the two men could not have been more different, both in their backgrounds and visions for the future.
Mr Trump, the son of a real estate developer, had enjoyed the high life for decades: gracing the pages of New York’s gossip columns as a firm fixture of the city’s high society.
Mr Vance was born into a far humbler environment in the steel town of Middletown, Ohio, raised in an unstable home by a drug-addicted mother, he leveraged his academic talent into a lucrative career as a lawyer and venture capitalist.
The change in view of Mr Vance, who had described himself as a ‘never Trump guy’, secured him the endorsement of the former president in Ohio’s senate race in 2022
With the platform Hillbilly Elegy had given him, Mr Vance became bracketed with Trump for his ability to tap into the concerns of blue-collar workers in the Rust Belt.
But he made his disdain for the Republican 2016 presidential candidate clear, declaring himself as a “never Trump guy”.
More familiar than most with the scourge of America’s opioid addiction, Mr Vance compared Trump’s candidacy to cultural heroin, branding him “America’s Hitler”.
By the time he was eyeing a political career of his own in 2021, Mr Vance had made a shrewd assessment of the landscape and underwent a conversion to Trumpism.
JD Vance arrives to accept his vice presidential nomination on the opening day of the Republican National Convention – ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“I’ve been very open about the fact that I did say those critical things, and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy,” he told Fox in 2021.
In his debate against Tim Walz on Oct 1, he said: “I’ve always been open and sometimes, of course, I’ve disagreed with the president, but I’ve also been extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump.”
His newfound fealty secured him the endorsement of the former president in Ohio’s senate race, the most competitive of the 2022 midterms, and with it his US Senate seat.
His fierce support for Trump in Congress, as well as his skill on both cable news and the campaign trail, has now seen him achieve what would have been unthinkable a few short years ago.
Mr Vance pictured with his wife Usha in 2022 – Drew Angerer/Getty Images
As Mr Trump’s vice president, the 40-year-old has become the youngest person to take the office in US history.
Many see opportunism in Mr Vance’s about-face, but friends claim the shift was a reaction to what he viewed as the media’s hysterical response to Trump’s presidency.
“It was a gradual shift that I think was really triggered by the media and the Left’s overreaction to Trump,” one friend told ABC News.
Nevertheless, Mr Vance’s political nous is unmistakable.
He endorsed Mr Trump’s 2024 presidential nomination in January 2023 when many in the GOP cautiously held back – wondering whether Florida governor Ron DeSantis might be a safer bet to win back the White House.
Mr Vance near the US Capitol building in Washington in 2017 – The Washington Post via Getty Images
Trump insiders say the 78-year-old, known to place a premium on loyalty, took note of Mr Vance’s early support.
He was rewarded when Mr Trump announced at the GOP convention in Milwaukee in July: “The person best suited to assume the position of vice president of the United States is Senator JD Vance”.
Close friend of Donald Jnr
His close friendship with Mr Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr, was instrumental to the decision. Don Jnr has long admired Mr Vance’s ability to connect with the Trump base and his skills as a communicator.
Most important of all, according to Trump insiders, is their conviction that Mr Vance’s sincerity will make him a more forceful advocate for their America-first platform.
“He actually believes” the policies he is promoting, one source said.
During his brief tenure in the US Senate, Mr Vance has challenged the legitimacy of the prosecutions against Trump and questioned the results of the 2020 election.
JD Vance and his wife Usha with Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno at the Republican National Convention – Carolyn Kaster
He has been a vocal critic of US aid to Ukraine and moderated his position on abortion to align with Mr Trump’s more ambiguous rhetoric on the issue.
Able to effortlessly transition between his roles as media attack dog, polished Yale law school debater and a relatable Middle American, he has shown his skill for tailoring Trump’s message to the audience at hand.
Speaking to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast during the election race, Mr Vance suggested white, middle class parents are allowing their children to undergo sex changes because it makes it easier to get into an Ivy League university, in an appeal to the show’s majority-male listeners.
“If you are a middle class or upper middle class, white parent and the only thing you care about is whether your child goes into Harvard or Yale, obviously that pathway has become a lot harder for a lot of upper middle class kids,” he said. “But the one way those people can participate in the DEI bureaucracy in this country is to be trans.”
Doubling down on transgender issues, which the Trump team has hammered in the late stages of the campaign, Mr Vance accused pharmaceutical companies of pushing children to transition in order to profit from the sale of conversation therapy drugs, railed against transgender women competing in sports and said he and Trump were going to win the “normal gay guy vote”.
His political intelligence has gave him a unique ability to connect with both working-class voters, thanks to his blue-collar background, and also highly educated suburban voters who admire his Ivy League pedigree.
A gifted student, he served as a US Marine before receiving a bachelor’s degree in his home state and attending Yale Law School.
It was a disassociation with his peers at Yale that is credited with first shaping his conservatism.
JD Vance and his wife Usha celebrated a the 2024 Republican National Convention – Carolyn Kaster
It was also where he met his wife, Usha, a California native of Indian descent, a highly successful lawyer and until at least 2014, a registered Democrat. The couple have three children.
During the vice presidential debate, he referred repeatedly to his children and said he wanted to put forward a “pro-family” platform at the 2024 election.
“I have three beautiful little kids at home, seven, four and two, and I love them very much,” he said.
After a stint in corporate law, Mr Vance relocated to San Francisco making his fortune as a venture capitalist under the tech billionaire and GOP activist Peter Thiel.
He left Silicon Valley behind to run for the Senate, and further eschewed the world he had once inhabited with his fiercely pro-Trump posture.
“Not many people would make the decision to reject the charmed life that came with being the toast of the elites the way JD did,” his close friend told ABC News.
However, Mr Vance has maintained ties with key players in Silicon Valley — in particular the influential Mr Thiel — and helped organise fundraisers with deep-pocketed donors for Trump’s campaign.
Before he was selected as Mr Trump’s running mate, a great deal of attention was paid to Mr Vance’s beard, given Mr Trump’s reported distaste for facial hair.
Donald Trump raises his fist after finishing his remarks after being sworn in as the 47th President in the US Capitol – SAUL LOEB
Some close to Mr Vance said the focus on the superficial is in fact a good metaphor for his political evolution. The shift from boyish puppy fat to full beard is representative of the “severe masculinism” he now espouses, one friend told the Washington Post.
Before their 2024 victory Mr Trump’s senior advisers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, described the pair as the most unifying and competitive ticket in political history”.
Now, Mr Vance and Mr Trump have four years in the White House to see if they can deliver on the “golden age of America” they have promised voters.
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