Victory with Trump’s blessing
For Vance, the “kiss ass” paid off
By Hubertus Volmer
09/11/2022 11:07
In Ohio, “Hillbilly Elegy” author and venture investor JD Vance wins election to the US Senate. It’s also a win for former President Trump, who has teased how much his former critic wanted his support during the campaign.
The image above his Twitter profile includes two central words in JD Vance’s political biography: “Trump has approved.” The political newcomer did it with this seal of approval: He won a Senate seat in the state of Ohio, against a Democratic candidate who had been leading in the polls for a long time.
You probably don’t offend the 38-year-old if you assume he was openly asking for Donald Trump’s support. Vance became known as a critic of Trump. He is the author of the best-selling book, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he writes autobiographically about the industrial decline of the Midwest. The book was published in 2016, four months before Trump won the presidential election against Democrat Hillary Clinton. At the time, Vance became something of an explainer of Trump, whom he also sharply criticized, both publicly and privately. In a text message to a friend at the time, he wrote that Trump could become “America’s Hitler”.
At least publicly, Vance has changed his stance. In 2020 he supported Trump in the presidential campaign and apologized for the previous attacks. He has called him the “best president of my life” and even adopted his conspiracy myth that his 2020 election win was “stolen.” With success: in the end, Vance received Trump’s “endorsement” for his candidacy for the Senate. This support has not helped in all cases: in Philadelphia, for example, Trump-backed Senate candidate Mehmet Oz failed to prevail over Democrat John Fetterman. But Trump was helpful to Vance, without him he would hardly have survived the primaries.
“JD Kisses My Ass”
Ohio is a rust belt state that has suffered from the effects of unamortized structural changes for decades. A few years ago, Ohio was still a classic swing state where Republicans win elections and Democrats win elections. In the meantime, however, the state is considered “red”, as a Republican. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump won the Ohio presidential election by a large margin.
So Vance had good reason to curry favor with Trump. “Like some others, JD Vance has said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he now he gets them,” Trump said in April, while officially endorsing Vance. “It’s our best chance to win what can be a very tough race.” In a campaign appearance five months later, however, Trump then teased the candidate: “JD kisses my ass, he wants my support so much,” said the former president, as Vance stood next to him on stage . Vance later dismissed the snub as a joke.
Vance isn’t the only Republican to have turned from a Trump critic to a Trump supporter. Particularly spectacular examples are former presidential candidate Ted Cruz and Senator Lindsey Graham. Cruz had a dispute with Trump in 2016, where Trump even claimed that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Graham, on the other hand, said in 2016 that if Republicans nominate Trump, “we’ll be destroyed — and we’ll have earned it.” Meanwhile, Graham has also submitted to Trump.
No thanks to Trump
In theory, of course, such changes can always be an expression of honest belief. It is more likely, however, that it is the result of cynical calculation. One reason for Vance’s rethink is that German-American tech investor Peter Thiel already backed him with $10 million last year. It wasn’t even clear then whether Vance would survive the Ohio primary. Thiel, a big fan of Trump, was Vance’s boss until a few years ago. Because Vance comes from the working class, but he is now – after studying law at the elite Yale University – a millionaire.
The question now is what Vance makes of his success and what it means to Trump. In his ten-minute acceptance speech in the state capital of Columbus, Vance thanked his family, numerous employees, and his late grandmother. However, one name was missing from the long list: Trump.
