{"id":247323,"date":"2021-03-18T13:15:23","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=247323"},"modified":"2021-03-18T13:15:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:15:27","slug":"hillbilly-elegy-author-jd-vance-confirms-hes-seriously-considering-senate-run-in-ohio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hillbilly-elegy-author-jd-vance-confirms-hes-seriously-considering-senate-run-in-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hillbilly Elegy\u2019 Author JD Vance Confirms He\u2019s Seriously Considering Senate Run In Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhillbilly-elegy-author-jd-vance-confirms-hes-seriously-considering-senate-run-in-ohio%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=247323&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-1823.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>News broke Monday that Silicon Valley billionaire Pete Thiel had dumped $10 million in a super PAC aimed at enticing \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d author J.D. Vance to run for the open Senate seat in Ohio.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The report quickly sparked media buzz and speculation around the prospect of a Vance bid. The 36-year-old is still weighing his options, but confirmed to The Daily Wire on Wednesday that he\u2019s seriously thinking about a run.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Vance, a Yale law school grad, became a staple in the political sphere when his memoir took off. \u201cHillbilly Elegy,\u201d detailing Vance\u2019s upbringing in the Appalachian regions of Kentucky and Middletown, Ohio, rife with chaos, poverty, and addiction, offered insight into the forgotten Americans living in the heartland for a shellshocked ruling class still baffled by Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 win.<\/p>\n<p>Such insight, of course, was quickly dismissed by our elites as Trump\u2019s populism continues to rage on.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Vance told The Daily Wire he doesn\u2019t necessarily feel pressure to run for the seat, but does feel it\u2019s his duty to at least try to solve some of the issues he\u2019s identified that are plaguing the American middle class \u2014 be that in the private or public sector.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese issues are very close to my heart,\u201d Vance said. \u201cAt a very fundamental level, I want people to be able to achieve a middle class lifestyle if they\u2019re hardworking, and for a lot of folks right now, it\u2019s pretty hard to get by. It\u2019s hard for complicated reasons; we\u2019ve seen the decimation of the manufacturing base in Ohio and other parts of the country. I do think that these are really important problems \u2014 whether you work on them in the private sector or in the public, I certainly feel that its my obligation to give a little bit back. I mean, I\u2019ve had a pretty fortunate life, here. I came from pretty tough circumstances, was raised by my grandparents, got to where I am now through some combination of luck and hard work and definitely feel a little bit like I\u2019m obligated to at least try to solve some of these problems, though it\u2019s definitely not just one person\u2019s effort. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Shaped by his upbringing, Vance takes on a much more Trump-aligned populist conservatism. Asked about which issues need to be addressed by the Republican Party, Vance identified immigration, America\u2019s trade policy,<b> <\/b>and the lack of pro-family policy. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a crisis at the Southern border invited by the Biden administration\u2019s policies,\u201d Vance said. \u201cIf you want people to live a secure middle class lifestyle, I think one of the things you have to have is a border, because when you don\u2019t have a border, you have meth and heroine coming into people\u2019s communities, you have lower-wage immigrants competing for their jobs. Both from a material perspective<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>\u2014 people want to have good jobs and good wages, but also just from being safe in their own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d Vance said, \u201cCOVID adds another dynamic to this, where people want to be safe in their health. We know that there are a lot of folks who are testing positive and getting released into American communities. That\u2019s just not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On trade, Vance said our nation needs \u201ca rational trade policy that protects American manufacturing jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any country in the history of the world that\u2019s had a viable, durable middle class unless it\u2019s had a real manufacturing base. It\u2019s important for national security reasons, but it\u2019s also just important because those are the jobs that can support a growing and vibrant middle class. You can\u2019t have a vibrant middle class if all of your jobs are in the service sector.&nbsp;I think that\u2019s a profound and important takeaway from the rise of China \u2026 And this issue is much bigger than just China. The question is, are we going to make things in the United States and are we going to employ our people at making them. And I think the answer to that question just has to be yes.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the tasks for the Republican Party is to turn the grassroots energy around protecting American manufacturing jobs into a longterm policy agenda that can accomplish that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The last issue Vance identified was establishing pro-family policy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way that I push this question is, if you\u2019re making $50,000, or $100,000, or $400,000 and you have three kids, you should pay a lower tax rate than if you\u2019re making the same income and you don\u2019t have any kids,\u201d Vance asserted.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think our policy for too long has ignored that you don\u2019t have a country if you don\u2019t have the next generation. You can\u2019t just import the next generation, and you can\u2019t just pretend it\u2019s gonna come from somewhere else. You have to home-grow it internally. People feel differently, obviously, about their own kids than they do other people. And if you have an entire generation of Americans who are not having children, then I think the country is just gonna be really unstable.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Some on the Left, of course, have argued the opposite; that the next generation can, indeed, be imported.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI get this argument all the time from people on the Left: \u2018Well, you should just want immigrants to become the next generation, and if we\u2019re not having high enough birthrates, then you just need to import the next generation.\u2019 I think that that\u2019s the sort of argument you make if you haven\u2019t thought at all about what conservatives are arguing about this issue,\u201d Vance explained.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust think about the effect that my kids \u2014 I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old \u2014 have on me, the way that they force me to be invested in my community, the way they force me to make tradeoffs in my work life, in my personal life, the way that they bring people closer to their extended families. Children are a good thing, and we should want more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, I don\u2019t have anything against a 35-year-old guy who wants to come to America and work \u2014 we can\u2019t let in everybody, and that\u2019s an important point \u2014 but that immigrant, I just don\u2019t have the same relationship to that person,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has nothing to do with any of the slanders that the Left tries to throw at us, it\u2019s just: that\u2019s not my kid; that\u2019s not my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea that you can build a nation off of strangers instead of off of children is just totally insane. I think anybody who actually has thought about this issue realizes how crazy it is.&nbsp;What is the transmission of values from one generation to the next? How do we teach our kids to love both their past, but to be invested in their future? That happens in the family unit. That doesn\u2019t happen from two strangers who maybe work together or see each other passing by on the street, that happens through families.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t have healthy families, I think it\u2019s worth saying again, you just don\u2019t have a real country.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Vance is also a supporter of unions, pinpointing the breakdown of communities in combination with globalization as a large contribution to the heartlands\u2019 struggles. The Yale grad argued that conservatives should rethink their position on unions while suggesting vital reforms to break through the modern \u201chyper woke\u201d union standard.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think conservatives should appreciate that, historically, often labor unions were really on their side on a lot of these questions,\u201d he offered, referencing pro-American worker immigration policies.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I think the unfortunate part is that union participation has become so low that it\u2019s just totally insignificant,\u201d Vance continued. \u201cThe existing labor unions that are out there have just become hyper \u2018woke\u2019 that they\u2019re actually not in any real sense differentiated from the Democratic Party leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that one thing we have to do as conservatives is to, one, figure out how to give American workers real bargaining power so that they can push back against immigration policies that undercut their wages, so they can push back against slave globalization as an organized force. But, also, you know, reform the labor union laws so that workers are actually represented by their unions and the unions aren\u2019t just representing the woke interest of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is a challenging area of reform,\u201d Vance admitted. \u201cYou can\u2019t just say, well, we want to throw everybody into the existing labor union infrastructure, because I think if you do that, you\u2019re going to have a real problem where your workers don\u2019t actually have their interests protected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I think if you do this smartly and you reform our labor laws in such a way where unions have to really stand up for the interests of their workers, that I think they could become real allies of the right,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think that union households are voting for Republicans more than they\u2019re voting for Democrat now, and this is just an important political constituency for us to continue to cultivate and for us to continue to build on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire asked Vance about what it is that the elites still miss most often, even after an autopsy of the 2016 election.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot,\u201d the author qualified his response.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that this is something, especially the folks on the Left, but even maybe folks on the more establishment Right, miss, is that people really care about their country,\u201d Vance said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not a trite thing.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople might think that it\u2019s big Ford trucks and flag-waving, that\u2019s all patriotism really is, it\u2019s just this skin-deep consumerism, and it\u2019s really not,\u201d he explained. \u201cPeople teach their kids about World War II; they show their kids pictures of grandparents, great-grandparents, parents who fought in American wars; they take their kids to patriotic events, to parades and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if you\u2019re on the Left, I think people see the American nation as this like fundamentally corrupt thing and they don\u2019t understand why workers love it. And the answer is workers love it because it\u2019s theirs and because it was their family\u2019s and because it will be their children\u2019s. And they can recognize that there are some faults in a way the country is governed, but at a fundamental level, this is people\u2019s homes, and they want to defend it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that basic patriotic defensive home instinct is something that a lot of American liberals really miss,\u201d he said. \u201cThey see it either as a xenophobia or jingoism and they don\u2019t recognize that it has real power. And, frankly, a lot of the big moments where American workers have really done well in this country, it\u2019s been because they\u2019ve marshaled the American nation behind them. That\u2019s an important fact to realize, that very often the biggest counterweight to corporate power has been the American country in the American political system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a couple of just really weird figures in American political history that I think the modern American Left doesn\u2019t know what to do with, and one of them is Huey Long, the Southern populist Democrat. And if you listen to Huey Long speeches, you would say it sounds like he\u2019s an economic populist; he sounds very much like he\u2019s of the Democratic Party. But if you keep listening to him, you realize that Huey Long really loved his country. He loved the people who lived in it. And I think unless you have that basic sense of pride of place, it\u2019s going to be really hard to appeal to the American working and middle class \u2014 that\u2019s true for white workers, black workers, and Latino workers, and it\u2019s frankly one of the reasons that President Trump did so well among Latinos and blacks in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The elites \u201cactually disdained the people that occupy the country that they run,\u201d he emphasized later in the interview, \u201cand they have no real interest in changing their views or getting to know their country a little bit better, and that\u2019s just a toxic and pretty dangerous combination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vance also took issue with language policing by the ruling class. \u201cWorking and middle-class folks that I know, they really, really resent the language policing that\u2019s happening in elite discourse these days,\u201d he said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey really don\u2019t like this idea that you can\u2019t talk about a political issue unless you talk about it in the \u2018right way\u2019; that there are constantly new terms that you have to use to identify things that five or ten years ago, you had to use a totally different term. I think a lot of people recognize, instinctively, that what this does is it blocks them from polite discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you can\u2019t talk about the issues that matter in the way that is natural to you, at a fundamental level, you\u2019re being deprived of your right to participate in American democracy,\u201d asserted Vance. \u201cAnd people get that, and they don\u2019t like to be told that they have to use some new word to describe a Latino person \u2026 if they want to talk about illegal immigration,&nbsp;they\u2019re not allowed to say illegal immigration.&nbsp;If your\u2019e tone-policing people, you\u2019re not dealing with the substance of their concerns. I think a lot of working middle-class Americans recognize.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo much of the modern Left is tone-policing because if they argue on the substance, they\u2019re going to lose,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Vance, who grew up in poverty, was asked his thoughts on the \u201cright way\u201d to show compassion to those struggling economically.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s to treat people like adults,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople recognized on the one hand, life can be unfair and that life can be hard, while on the other hand, still recognizing that whatever hand you were dealt you still got to try to make something of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that too often people on the Right ignore the fact that there are real hardships out there, and we\u2019ve got to make life as easy for people as we can,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd people on the Left too often want to treat people&nbsp;as these sort of like, completely without agency animals who are&nbsp;victims of social forces beyond their control, and if you\u2019re not giving them the right government support they\u2019re not going to have any chance at life. And that\u2019s just not how most people think of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think of my grandma and the way that she talked about the struggles of our own life, and she would always say, you know, things are harder for us than those people. We\u2019re poor people. She wanted me to understand that was part of our identity, that we had gone through some real hardships. But it was never, we\u2019re poor, therefore you should give up on yourself. Or, we\u2019re poor, therefore life doesn\u2019t have any meaning or there\u2019s no hope in the future. It was always, you know, we\u2019re poor and we\u2019re just going to have to work harder and deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u201c<\/span>And I think that that kind of old-fashioned American instinct that you can both recognize things are tough for some people, while also encouraging them to achieve the best for themselves and their families, is just totally missing from American public life these days,\u201d Vance explained. \u201cIt\u2019s either you treat everybody as a victim with no control over their life or we want to ignore that some people do really have tough lives. Luckily, most Americans have much more common sense about it than I think our political leaders and media media folks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat advice would you give to kids in poverty?\u201d he was asked.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy advice to kids is always one, don\u2019t forget where you came from, because it\u2019s a real source of strength,\u201d he answered. \u201cAnd don\u2019t give up on yourself&nbsp;just because your life is hard; don\u2019t pretend your life isn\u2019t hard, don\u2019t ignore the fact that it is, but don\u2019t give up on yourself just because your life is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that it\u2019s an important message for kids to learn, that the future isn\u2019t hopeless just because you haven\u2019t been given everything on a silver platter.&nbsp;And the flip side of it, don\u2019t forget your roots, because the people I meet who are most grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI used to sometimes be resentful that life was harder for me when I was a kid,\u201d Vance said, \u201cI now really appreciate it because I don\u2019t think that I\u2019d have the same perspective I do now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zRgrBtADM3k&amp;t=1770s\">J.D. Vance | The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special Ep. 109<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News broke Monday that Silicon Valley billionaire Pete Thiel had dumped $10 million in a super PAC aimed at enticing \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d author J.D. Vance to run for the open &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310746,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-1823.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Hillbilly Elegy\u2019 Author JD Vance Confirms He\u2019s Seriously Considering Senate Run In Ohio","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-1823.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018Hillbilly Elegy\u2019 Author JD Vance Confirms He\u2019s Seriously Considering Senate Run In Ohio","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}