By: Audrey Elwood, A&E Editor

JD Vance, a Cincinnati Metro area resident, is running as the Vice Presidential candidate on the former president Donald Trumps ticket. He is the first Ohioan to run on a presidential ticket since John Bricker ran for vice president in 1944. 

Vance was born on August 2nd, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio approximately 40 minutes from Xavier, to parents Beverly Carol and David Ray Bowman, where he was raised as a Protestant.

Vance wrote the New York Times bestseller, Hillbilly Elegy, which describes his childhood as riddled with poverty and drug abuse. His father left his family at a young age, and his mother struggled with addiction and had five marriages.

  He and his sister were raised by their maternal grandparents. He has cited his grandmother as one of the biggest influences in his life. “She really just got me. She understood when I needed someone.. She knew when I needed love and comfort.” Vance said in a 2017 interview with TV host and journalist Megyn Kelly.

After high school, Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving as a combat correspondent. After his time in the military, he enrolled at The Ohio State University (OSU), majoring in philosophy and political science and graduating summa cum laude. 

After his time at OSU, he attended Yale law school. He often remarked that in his time at Yale, he felt like an outsider because of his background and the fact that he went to a state school. 

Vance worked as a law clerk for the US District Court of Eastern Kentucky for a year, before working as a corporate lawyer for two years. After his stint in the legal world, Vance moved to San Francisco to work in venture capital, eventually landing a role at PayPal co founder Peter Theil’s firm, Mithril Capital, as Principal in 2016. 

In 2016, Hillbilly Elegy was published, and the Times listed it as one of the “6 Books to Help Understand Trump’s Win.” He wrote a column for the Times noting how his interactions with social elites helped shape his worldview, specifically those that were negative toward his former socioeconomic status.

He also helped to start Our Ohio Renewal, a nonprofit focused on social ills and addiction recovery. The nonprofit, in financial disclosings, revealed that they had spent more on management fees for Vance’s head political advisor Jai Chabria than on addiction support.

Vance is married to Usha Chilukuri, who he met at Yale Law. They currently have three children together. He converted to Catholicism in 2019.

Vance was elected as a Senator for Ohio in 2022, beating Democrat Tim Ryan. Currently serving on the Senate committees for Banking Housing, and Urban Affairs: Aging, Commerce Science and Transportation. He has co-sponsored bills such as one that reduces executives’ pay when big banks fail and legalize arresting doctors who perform gender-affirming care on minors. He was announced to be former president Trump’s running mate earlier this year and has since not appeared in a Senate meeting.