Based Underground is now a conservative news aggregator AND curated newsletter.
(Daily Signal)—Donald Trump selected Sen. JD Vance from Ohio on Monday as his running mate in the Nov. 5 election, which the former president hopes will return him to the White House. Vance accepted and Vice President Kamala Harris said she’s ready to debate him.
So, who is JD Vance?
Here are five things to know about him.
1. A Marine
Vance served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 as a combat correspondent. He deployed to Iraq for six months in late 2005.
Vance is one of four Marines currently serving in the Senate. The other three are Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct.; Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; and Todd Young, R-Ind.
The late former astronaut John Glenn is the only other person to have represented Ohio in the Senate as a Marine.
2. Venture Capitalist
After graduating from Ohio State University in 2009 and Yale Law School in 2013, Vance worked at PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Mithril Capital between 2016 and 2017.
Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy will immediately recognize the name of Thiel’s firm, which is a reference to an extremely strong and valuable dwarven metal that saves Frodo Baggins’ life in the Peter Jackson film version of “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
Vance also included a nod to Tolkien when he launched his own venture capital firm in Cincinnati. He started Narya Capital in 2020, naming it after one of the three elven rings in “The Lord of the Rings.” The wizard Gandalf (played by Ian McKellen in Jackson’s films) wore the ring, which helps its wearer resist tyranny.
3. ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
While working at Mithril Capital, Vance published his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis” in 2016.
- Concerned about your life’s savings as the multiple challenges decimate retirement accounts? You’re not alone. Find out how Genesis Precious Metals can help you secure your wealth with a proper self-directed IRA backed by physical precious metals.
“Hillbilly Elegy,” which describes Vance’s youth in the hollowed-out Rust Belt, captured the struggles of Middle America and catapulted him to cultural and political stardom.
The book highlights the Appalachian values of Vance’s Kentucky family and the socioeconomic problems of his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, where his mother’s parents settled when they were young. Ron Howard directed a 2020 film adaptation starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.
Commentators noted that the struggles Vance revealed in his memoir echo the experiences of the “forgotten men and women” who helped elect Trump as president in 2016.
4. U.S. Senator
Vance, who initially criticized the former president, received Trump’s endorsement in the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Ohio, ultimately defeating Democratic nominee Rep. Tim Ryan.
As senator, Vance has championed many of Trump’s issues. Vance repeatedly has warned about the consequences of illegal immigration and has loudly supported funding the completion of Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Vance has opposed experimental transgender medical interventions for minors—often euphemistically branded “gender-affirming care” to hide the true nature of such procedures. He introduced the Protect Children’s Innocence Act to make interventions such as “puberty blockers,” cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries a felony when performed on minors.
“Under no circumstances should doctors be allowed to perform these gruesome, irreversible operations on underage children,” the Ohio Republican said in introducing the bill.
Vance has indicated that he would support a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, although he more recently said abortion laws should be up to the states in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling. In an interview July 7 with “Meet the Press,” Vance said he supports Americans having access to mifepristone, an abortion pill.
He has argued that the U.S. should shift its focus to East Asia, criticized unaccountable U.S. military aid to Ukraine, and backed funding for Israel during its war with the Hamas terrorist organization.
5. Family and Faith
Vance, who turns 40 on Aug. 2, has three children with his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, whom he married in 2014.
Although the Ohio senator grew up in a “conservative, evangelical” branch of Protestantism, he told The Washington Post that he was seriously considering converting to Catholicism in September 2016. He was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church in Cincinnati in 2019.
Vance chose Augustine of Hippo as his confirmation saint. Augustine, best known for his seminal works “Confessions” and “City of God,” helped found a robust intellectual tradition in the Catholic Church and inspired many Protestants as well.
“One of the subtexts about my return to Christianity is that I had come from a world that wasn’t super-intellectual about the Christian faith,” Vance told columnist Rod Dreher in 2019. “I spend a lot of my time these days among a lot of intellectual people who aren’t Christian. Augustine gave me a way to understand Christian faith in a strongly intellectual way.”
“I also went through an angry atheist phase,” Vance added. “As someone who spent a lot of his life buying into the lie that you had to be stupid to be a Christian, Augustine really demonstrated in a moving way that that’s not true.”
Does Donald Trump REALLY Have This Election “In the Bag”?
by JD Rucker
No. Stop it. Remember 2020. Remember the tens of millions of illegal aliens, 14% of whom are apparently registering to vote. Remember that while most states can report results in less than a day, for some reason battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia are incapable of reporting for days or…
Daniel Penny Subway Chokehold Trial Begins
by Zero Hedge
Jordan Neely’s death in a crowded Manhattan subway car made worldwide headlines in May 2023, after bystander footage showed former Marine Daniel Penny restraining the erratic homeless man in a fatal chokehold. The case is finally set to go to trial, with jury selection beginning Monday. Penny, who has argued…
You Can’t Get Blood Out of a Stone: U.S. Consumers Have Been Squeezed Bone Dry as the U.S. Economy Falters
by Michael Snyder
(The Economic Collapse Blog)—A recent survey discovered that 79 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. is on the wrong track right now. As a nation, we may not agree on much, but this is one thing that almost all of us can agree on. Needless to say, the economy is…
US Investigating Leak of Israeli Attack Plans for Iran
by Publius
The United States government is currently engaged in an investigation concerning the unauthorized release of classified documents that detail Israel’s planned military attack against Iran, as reported by The Associated Press. These sensitive documents, attributed to both the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, indicate that Israel…
Bank of America Sees Gold Breaking $3,000 Sooner Rather Than Later
by Sponsored Post
Gold has recently experienced a remarkable resurgence, setting record highs and drawing renewed attention from both retail and institutional investors. This shift comes as traditional safe-haven assets are increasingly perceived to be under threat. Strategists at Bank of America suggest that investors, including central banks, should consider reallocating into gold…
Texas DPS Encounter Group of 30 Illegal Aliens with 3 Unaccompanied Minors and 3 Special Interest Illegals
by The Gateway Pundit
Texas DPS apprehended a group of 30 illegal aliens on Sunday in Maverick County. In the group were 3 unaccompanied minors and 3 illegals from the “special interest” countries of Iran and Guinea. Special interest refers to countries that pose a threat to United States national security including potential terrorist…
‘Nightmarish Scenario:” Creeps Can Produce AI-Generated Deepfake Nudes of Anyone With a Few Clicks
by Breitbart
Online AI chatbots are enabling users to generate explicit nude photos of real people with just a few clicks, raising alarms among experts about a looming “nightmarish scenario.” A recent investigation by Wired has uncovered a disturbing trend on the messaging app Telegram, where dozens of AI-powered chatbots are allowing…
Elon Musk Goes All-in for Trump at Huge Pittsburgh Rally, Says ‘Stakes Are Too High’ to Remain Politically Neutral
by The Post Millennial
Elon Musk was in Pennsylvania Sunday along with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to tell Keystone State voters that although he might “hate politics” he’s engaging in it right now because “the stakes are too high that … I feel I have no choice.” “Yeah, anyway, so I’m dramatically increasing…
Fake Meat Industry Now Demanding Public Subsidies Due to Lack of Customer Interest
by Ramon Tomey
(Natural News)—The fake meat industry is now demanding public subsidies to prop itself up, given that customers have spoken with their wallets and said “no” to lab-grown meat. Data from AgFunderNews cited by the National Pulse reveals that the industry is in dire straits due to dwindling money. Funding for the lab-grown meat sector peaked…
Dominion Voting Systems Issues a Chilling Warning to Conservatives Weeks Before the Election
by The Gateway Pundit
Dominion Voting Systems has issued a chilling warning to conservatives just weeks before the all-important presidential election. In a post on the X platform, the company said that it was “closely monitoring” claims that its machines may be compromised. “Dominion is closely monitoring claims around the Nov. 2024 election and…
Coward: Hamas Chief’s Bunker Loaded With UN Food, Millions in Cash, Weapons and More
by Red State
The one constant in the entire “Islamist terrorist” issue is that their leaders 1) never place themselves in any direct danger, although sometimes danger in the form of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) manages to find them anyway, and 2) they generally live in wealth and luxury while their fighters…
Fire Departments Sued by Biden-Harris for Requiring Job Candidates to Learn How to Fight Fires
by The Gateway Pundit
Thank heavens for the Biden-Harris administration and its steadfast determination to root out institutional racism wherever it may hide. And it hides in the strangest places, too. For instance, do you know it’s institutionally racist to expect a firefighter to know enough to fight fires? I know, I’d been too…
“The Epitome of Evil” Is Running Operations Out of Government Facilities “Established to Provide Assistance” to Illegals
by Michael Snyder
(End of the American Dream)—Are you ready for the truth? Since Joe Biden entered the White House, we have witnessed a tsunami of migration that is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Millions upon millions of people that are not being properly screened are taking advantage of our deeply…
Iran Deserves Listing on Global Terror Finance and Money-Laundering Blacklist
by WND
On Oct. 21, the plenary of the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, will convene in Paris. Should the organization that sets global standards for countering money laundering and terror finance consider removing the Islamic Republic of Iran from its blacklist, as Tehran hopes, the answer should be a resounding…
The All-Too-Short List of Conservative, Anti-Globalist Leaders
by The Gateway Pundit
As the world shifts leftward and increasingly embraces globalism, a handful of leaders remain as holdouts—conservative, anti-globalist figures who advocate for national sovereignty, economic protectionism, and opposition to globalist institutions such as the United Nations, the European Union, or multinational trade agreements. They frequently push for secure borders and immigration…