Contributing to the national conversation on race

Two years ago, Donald Trump selected a first-term Ohio senator to be his running mate.

“I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” JD Vance said to the crowd at the Republican National Convention in July 2024. Months later, he would be the second-in-command, and widely seen as the heir apparent to the Make America Great Again-version of the Republican Party.

Vance’s ascent to the pinnacle of power would be enough to give anyone vertigo. Born in the small, industrial town of Middletown, Ohio, and raised by a mother who struggled with alcoholism, Vance made his way through the Marines, Ohio State University, and Yale Law School. He then worked as a venture capitalist before becoming a New York Times bestselling author for his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” In 2022, he jumped into politics, promoting tariffs to protect US manufacturing and advocating against foreign intervention.

Yet Vance has been sliding downhill since entering the White House.

“Vance was very much ‘of the moment’ in 2024,” Republican strategist Liz Mair told GZERO. “But his shtick isn’t evolving.”