Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio, right) points to former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on March 16 in Vandalia, Ohio. Trump named Vance as his vice presidential running mate.
Jeff Dean/Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — Before JD Vance was chosen as Donald Trump's vice president, the Ohio senator was something many Republicans despised: a Silicon Valley investor who lived in San Francisco.
Trump introduced Vance as his running mate on Monday on his social media page Truth Social, calling him “the person best qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States” and praising his “highly successful business career in technology and finance.”
Vance is not from San Francisco. He grew up in poverty in southern Ohio and Kentucky, which inspired his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
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After moving to San Francisco, he stopped voting for Trump. In 2016, he supported independent Evan McMullin, telling interviewer Charlie Rose, “I'm a 'never Trump' guy,” and saying Trump has “no domestic agenda other than tax cuts.”
“My fear with Trump has always been that he doesn't have great solutions. I'm pessimistic that you can flip the trade switch and bring all those steel jobs back to Middletown,” Vance said at the time, referring to the Ohio town where he grew up.
Vance lived in San Francisco after graduating from Yale Law School in 2013 and worked as a venture capitalist in the Presidio near the Golden Gate Bridge. Although he returned to his native Ohio in 2017, his Democratic opponents mocked his stay in San Francisco, calling it a sign of how out of touch he was with the heart of the nation.
When Vance ran for Senate in Ohio in 2022, his Democratic opponent, then-Representative Tim Ryan, believed Vance's stay in San Francisco was political gold with working-class voters.
Ryan's supporters derided Vance as a “San Francisco vulture capitalist” and sent him a “sustainable and vegan soy candle with a unique San Francisco scent.” The Ohio Democratic Party chairman derided him as “a San Francisco elitist who will do or say anything to climb the political ladder.”
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Vance, meanwhile, railed against Ryan for voting in lockstep with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. Ryan responded during a debate that Vance mentioned Pelosi so often that “if you want to run against Nancy Pelosi, move back to San Francisco and run against Nancy Pelosi.”
Ryan's campaign team mocked Vance for an essay in which he wrote: “My wife and I spent the morning volunteering at a community garden in our San Francisco neighborhood. After a few hours of odd jobs, we headed off with the other volunteers to our respective destinations: delicious brunches, day trips to wine country, tours of art galleries. By San Francisco standards, it was a perfectly normal day.”
What was not mentioned was that the Atlantic essay Ryan was referring to was about opioid addiction in Ohio and that Vance talked about his mother's drug addiction.
In San Francisco, Vance worked for Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital Management. Thiel, a billionaire investor who was a major Republican donor and an early supporter of Trump during his 2016 campaign, has since distanced himself from Trump and said he will not make any political donations this year. Thiel, who is gay, is frustrated by the Republican Party's focus on cultural issues, particularly when it comes to transgender rights.
After the publication of “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, Vance became a mainstream media darling as a cultural commentator for the rural, white, working-class Americans portrayed in his memoir. “CBS This Morning” asked him to explain the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which Trump famously said had “good people on both sides.”
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“I think the president has really missed an opportunity,” Vance said, “to name this enemy, to describe it and then tell the country what we need to do to defeat it.” Vance said a president should not only be a political leader, “but also a moral leader.”
Vance changed his mind about Trump after returning to Ohio and worked hard to eventually get his support for his Senate campaign. During a campaign appearance to promote Vance in 2016, Trump mocked him while drumming up support: “JD kisses my ass,” Trump told the crowd.
Jessica Millan Patterson, chairwoman of the California Republican Party, was not concerned about Vance's lack of experience. Much like former President Barack Obama, Vance served only two years in the Senate before running for president. (Obama served three terms in the Illinois legislature before running as the Democratic Party candidate in 2008. Vance had never held elected office before his current role.)
“I mean, President Trump never held elected office before his election,” Patterson said Monday.
Patterson and other California delegates downplayed Vance's San Francisco background.
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“It just shows that he could represent the whole country,” said John Dennis, chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party. “He lived in San Francisco. He represents Ohio. He's a great cross-section.”
Dennis, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus, a national organization that represents libertarian values, said Vance is one of the organization's highest-ranking senators primarily because of his advocacy of smaller government and less military intervention abroad.
Vance has since used his connections in Silicon Valley and San Francisco to help Trump.
In March, Vance introduced Trump to San Francisco venture capitalist David Sacks, who co-hosts the country's second-best technology podcast, “All-In,” with wealthy investor Chamath Palihapitiya. Vance was also instrumental in organizing a fundraiser at Sacks' Pacific Heights mansion, which Trump and Vance attended. Tickets cost $50,000 to $500,000 and netted the former president $12 million.
On Sunday, Vance blamed President Joe Biden – without any evidence – for the failed assassination attempt on Trump. Authorities have so far found no motive for the shooter's actions.
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“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote on the social media platform X on Sunday. “This rhetoric led directly to the assassination of President Trump.”
By this argument, Vance would also be complicit. In 2022, his former college roommate, Georgia State Rep. Josh McLaurin, posted a social media message he received from Vance in 2016 comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler.
“I'm torn between thinking that Trump could be a cynical Nixon-like asshole who wouldn't be so bad (and might even prove useful) and thinking that he could be America's Hitler,” Vance wrote, according to McLaurin. “That's not discouraging.”
East Bay Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell responded to Vance on X on Sunday, saying, “You called Trump 'American Hitler' – now you're back at your kids' table. Violence will NEVER be the answer.”
Senate candidate Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) echoed Vance's previous comments following the announcement.
“Trump has torn down so many of the guardrails of our democracy because he could stand in for him in Congress,” wrote Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank on X. Vance “is now at the top of the list. Having declared Trump unfit for office, he is now stepping onto the ballot ready to advance everything he once disapproved of in the pure pursuit of power.”
When asked about Vance's past comments about Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy did not respond directly on Monday at a policy forum sponsored by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.
“I think there's a lot of understandable anger,” Ramaswamy said. “So the question is: Are you telling people not to be angry? No, of course not. I share that anger. But how can we channel that frustration, sadness and anger that comes with it to actually do what we might not have been able to do otherwise?”
Delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday also had no problem with Vance's previous comments about Trump.
“Apparently they've worked it out. And if they can work it out between themselves and come to an agreement, it's up to our country to unite and support both of them to the best of our ability,” said Phillip Cothman, a delegate from Fontana.
Cothman, 33, was more excited that Vance represented a younger generation.
“As you can see if you look around the room, we need a lot more youth and vigor, and I hope this inspires others our age to step up to the plate,” Cothman said. “This is no longer my parents' party. This is a party for me, my family and my children.”
Sacks, the billionaire who hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his Pacific Heights home last month, called Vance on X “an American patriot who has the courage to fight America's wars but also the wisdom to know when to avoid them.” Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform who endorsed Trump over the weekend, responded: “Great choice.”
Reach Joe Garofoli: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joegarofoli. Reach Shira Stein: shira.stein@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @shiramstein
