10 Things to Know about J.D. Vance’s Faith and Beliefs

1. J.D. Vance’s Grandparents Were Strong Positive Influences

Vance credits his grandmother with instilling solid Christian character and values in him during his early years. In those days, Middletown was a thriving, middle-class town where a family could comfortably live on one income. 

According to Vance’s website, when the town’s largest manufacturer merged, it turned out to be a poor business decision, and Vance’s family and many other Middletown families experienced hard times.

J.D. Vance’s mother struggled with drug and alcohol addictions, so he was raised by his grandparents. He claims that being raised by them was the best thing that could have happened to him, according to Politico.  

In his twenties, Vance wandered away from his Christian roots and held atheistic views. According to Desert News, he converted to Catholicism in his early 30s. His wife, Usha, was raised in a Hindu home, according to a Fox News interview.

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2. J.D. Vance Pursued His Dreams Despite Adversity

Vance didn’t let his family’s hard times stop him from pursuing his dreams. He wrote a bestselling memoir of his life growing up in Middletown called Hillbilly Elegy (2016), which also became a movie. His mother’s struggle with drug dependence may have initially been a motivator for a non-profit he started in 2016 called Our Ohio Renewal. The focus of the organization was to assist underprivileged children and help combat an opioid epidemic, but after a few years, the organization folded, according to Britannica.com.  

Then, Vance turned his attention to politics and became a U.S. Ohio Senator in 2022. If he and Trump win the presidency, Vance would be one of the youngest vice presidents in America’s history. 

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3. J.D. Vance Takes a Moderately Pro-Life Stance

Vance is unashamedly pro-life, although he does hold the view that it shouldn’t be decided on the federal level. He believes each state needs to decide that on their own, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. He also supports legislation for the availability of abortion pills, according to Desert News.

Nevertheless, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser lauded Vance for “His courage in exposing the Democrats’ agenda of abortion for any reason, even in the seventh, eighth, or ninth month,” according to WND.

She went on to note that this view helped him to win the 2022 Senate seat and that his difficult upbringing helped him to have an informed and “compassionate approach to this issue. He saw firsthand how the deck could be stacked against women facing unexpected pregnancies if they do not have the support and resources they need, even though most would rather choose life. His ability to compellingly share these stories nationally will surely be an asset. During his time in the Senate, he has earned an A+ on our Scorecard. With approximately 750,000 babies in states like California and New York still lacking basic protections, we need champions whose boldness will not waver.”

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4. J.D. Vance Supports Families

Vance is a family man. He and his wife, Usha, are college sweethearts who married in 2013 and have three small children: Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel. 

Though the couple doesn’t embrace the same faith, when Usha was asked in a Fox News interview how they blend their Hindu and Catholic faith while raising children together, Usha replied, “There are a lot of things that we just agree on; I think, especially when it comes to family life, how to raise our kids. And so I think the answer really is we just talk a lot.”

He introduced legislation called the “Stay-at-Home Parents Act” that amends the present FMLA. If it were to pass, it would prevent companies from reclaiming premiums if an employee decides not to return to work due to the birth of a child, according to govtrack.us. 

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5. J.D. Vance Supports Preserving God-Ordained Gender

During his time as a Senator, Vance proposed legislation that would ban using chemicals and sex change operations that transgender activists are fighting to have made available to minors, according to WND.

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6. J.D. Vance Believes Funds Need Cut to Ukraine

Vance isn’t in favor of continuing to provide funds and weapons to Ukraine as Russia continues its war efforts toward them. He feels there isn’t a “clear endpoint,” even though “The United States has sent tens of billions worth of military aid to Ukraine with shockingly little accountability for where those resources have gone,” Fox News reported. 

Vance feels that a standard of tracking needs to be implemented for all weapons that the U.S. sends overseas to Ukraine, and if that standard can’t be maintained, then the weapons shouldn’t be sent. 

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7. J.D. Vance Will Advocate for Israel

Vance is a supporter of Israel and recognizes the strategic importance of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, as well as how Israel is a stabilizing force in the Middle East. 

“I will be as strong an advocate for the US-Israel relationship as anyone,” he told the Jerusalem Post. 

He’s also a supporter of relocating the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and believes Israel should have control over Jerusalem.   

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8. J.D. Vance Suspects 2020 Election Was Stolen

Vance has long supported the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. In an interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer in October 2022, he said, “The thing that I’ve always said here, and I’ll repeat to you, is, was the election in 2020 free and fair? Was it above board? My answer is no. I really don’t think that it was.

“There are many arguments we can make, but here’s the thing that I think made the election fundamentally a problem in 2020. It’s not foreign people hacking into the voting machines and changing Biden votes into Trump votes or Trump votes into Biden votes. It’s the influence of the technology industry on the election.”

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9. Silicon Valley Likes J.D. Vance as Trump’s Running Mate

Trump’s pick of Vance for his running mate has received a positive nod from several Silicon Valley tycoons, some previously supportive of Democrats. A few notable names include Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump on Saturday, and Jacob Helberg, senior adviser to the CEO of Palantir Technologies. Investor Balaji Srinivasan has also expressed support for Vance as Trump’s running mate, according to The Hill.

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10. J.D. Vance Plans Possible Vice Presidential Debate

Shortly after the announcement was made that Vance was picked as Trump’s running mate, Vice President Harris called to congratulate him. She also expressed an interest in the two of them having a vice presidential debate. It’s speculated that the debate would take place in late summer, according to The Hill.

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