Republicans’ hillbilly hopeful straying closer to Trump’s path
When JD Vance shot to prominence in 2016 he was viewed by many conservatives as a saviour-in-waiting. The author of Hillbilly Elegy, a book that dominated American bestseller lists and media conversation for many months, was seen as the real deal, an intellectual redneck who could articulate the authentic voice of middle America, in contrast to Donald Trump’s flashy faux-populism.
Persistently tipped for high office, Vance, 36, is now throwing his hat into the congressional ring. The retirement of Rob Portman in his home state of Ohio has opened up a Senate seat. Vance is ready to join the fray.
Debate swirls endlessly around this young man, who has yet to hold political office. In many ways, the trajectory of a novice politician from small-town Appalachia has become a test case for the entire Republican Party.
Many hope that Vance can help the party find the muchvaunted ‘‘Trumpism without Trump’’; to keep the best of the policies and lose the madness. But he has come in for heavy criticism of late as he steps up his political activity. Many view his growing pugnacity as evidence that Trumpism without Trump is a myth, a trap that will lure Vance into becoming just another ragestoking social media troll.
Vance has told friends he will run for the Ohio seat and has already received US$10 million (NZ$14 million) in backing from the Silicon Valley mogul Peter Thiel, his longtime mentor. It will be a competitive race against prominent state Republicans but a range of top conservatives, including influential media friends such as the Fox
News host Tucker Carlson, are thrilled about Vance’s entry into the arena.
They see enormous potential in him and recognise the power of his brand. When his book was published five years ago, and again when the Oscar-nominated film adaptation was released last year, Vance’s life story gripped the nation.
Emerging from a broken home plagued by addiction and violence, Vance was raised by his fierce ‘‘mawmaw’’ (grandmother) and made it all the way to Yale Law School via the US Marines and Iraq. His journey was proof that the American dream still lives but also testament to the profound cultural and economic malaise in which America’s white working class is trapped.
It was all a long way from Trump’s silver-spooned upbringing.
Back in 2016, Vance was a Never Trump Republican and didn’t vote for the 45th president, believing him unsuitable for high office. ‘‘My fears thus far have been confirmed,’’ he told me the following year. ‘‘He understands the problems, but there’s no evidence he’s actually articulating a way out.’’ These remarks may yet come back to haunt him in Ohio, because the Republican Party of 2021 is very much still the party of Trump. This was demonstrated recently when the party held a retreat for donors and strategists at the former president’s Mara-Lago resort in Florida. Vance also made the pilgrimage there recently, with Thiel alongside him.
Trumpism may suit Vance in policy terms but you can’t escape Trump’s personal influence in the party today either: the performative trolling, the election lies and the personality cult.
Vance himself had moved into the Trump camp by 2020, despite his qualms, and voted for him last November. As he gears up for his own political run, he’s been making nice with the wider Trump galaxy too. He’s retweeted altright figures such as Mike Cernovich, appeared on podcasts hosted by the likes of the Trump loyalist Seb Gorka and tweeted about powerful paedophiles, which some critics saw as a wink to the QAnon conspiracy.
Some of his early supporters are deeply disappointed. ‘‘Vance arrived on the scene as a new voice, eager to be taken seriously,’’ said Mona Charen, a conservative writer who was among the first to praise Hillbilly Elegy. ‘‘He was an intellectual conservative who did pull himself by his bootstraps. I was very enthusiastic about his book, I found it impressive and moving.’’
Charen fears Vance’s ambition has got the better of him. ‘‘He’s an ambitious fellow, and I think he’s accurately assessed where the Republican Party is and what you have to do to be successful, so he morphed over time,’’ she said. ‘‘Now he’s willing to go really into the depths of right-wing nutbaggery if that’s what the voters want. He’s joined the jackals because that’s where the juice is.’’