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Early years -

James David "JD" Vance was actually born James Donald Bowman on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio. His parents divorced when he was a youngster. After Bowman was adopted by his mom's third husband, Bob Hamel, his mother changed his name to James David Hamel. The name change preserved his nickname, JD. He eventually took his mother's maiden name, Vance, as his surname.

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Military career -

After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003, Vance enlisted in the US Marine Corps. He served for four years, during which he was deployed to Iraq for six months.

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Further study -

Following his honorable discharge from the Marines, Vance enrolled at The Ohio State University. He graduated in 2009 with a degree in political science and philosophy before enrolling at Yale Law School in 2010. It was during his time at Yale that Vance began working on a memoir.

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'Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis' -

'Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis' was published in June 2016. The memoir recounts the Appalachian culture and socioeconomic problems of Vance's small-town upbringing. It remained on the The New York Times Best Seller list throughout 2016 and 2017.

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'Hillbilly Elegy' (2020) -

Widely praised (The Washington Post called Vance the "voice of the Rust Belt," while The New York Times described the book as "a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass"), 'Hillbilly Elegy' also drew criticism, with The New Republic denouncing Vance as "liberal media's favorite white trash–splainer" and a "false prophet of blue America." Ron Howard later took the book and turned it into a film starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close (pictured).

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Elevated profile -

The book's appeal to working-class whites living outside major cities and the subsequent rise of popular support for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign further elevated Vance's profile. But Vance, by now based in California, emerged as a vocal critic of Trump: "My god what an idiot," he tweeted that same year about the presidential hopeful.

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Our Ohio Renewal -

In late December 2016, Vance moved back to Ohio where he established Our Ohio Renewal, a nonprofit organization that aimed to help disadvantaged children and address social ills, such as drug addiction and the opioid epidemic. The organization folded less than two years later.

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High finance -

Vance then turned his attention towards the world of high finance. He joined the investment firm Revolution LLC before founding his own venture capitalism firm, Narya, in 2019.

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Running for senator -

Vance had toyed with the idea of entering politics as early as 2018. He rekindled the idea in Ohio on July 21, 2021, when he announced his Republican Senate campaign.

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Apologist -

It was while on the campaign trail that JD Vance publicly apologized for his past critical comments about Trump. "I regret being wrong about the guy," he said. "I think he was a good president, I think he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak." Trump officially endorsed his former critic in April 2022.

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MAGA -

As Republican Senate nominee, JD Vance made several appearances on national television to voice his support for Trump's policies, which he had made the centerpiece of his campaign. He also aligned himself with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

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"Childless cat ladies" -

In a 2021 interview with Fox News, Vance made his infamous remark that the US was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs, and "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too."

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Senator of Ohio -

On November 8, 2022, JD Vance beat Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan 53% to 47% to win a seat in the Senate. He was sworn in as senator of Ohio on January 3, 2023.

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Political stance -

In his first year in office, Senator Vance made clear where he stood on political issues, including opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, gun control, and American military aid to Ukraine. And in a throwback to his "cat lady" analogy, he linked childlessness to sociopathy.

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Sharing the same platform -

On February 23, Vance spoke at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. The following day, Donald Trump took to the floor where he declared that a Republican victory on November 5 would be his "ultimate and absolute revenge."

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"Wake Up Call" -

During his "Wake Up Call" delivered to delegates on the last day of the 60th Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 18, 2024, Vance said that Europe had to take a bigger role in its own security.

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In line for VP nomination -

It was in June 2024 that Senator Vance discovered that he was on a shortlist of vice-presidential running mates for former President Donald Trump.

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A "threat to American democracy" -

JD Vance was present when Donald Trump arrived at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 13, 2024, when the former president, by now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, heard the case against him in his hush-money trial. Vance has called the trial a "threat to American democracy."

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Trump's running mate -

On July 15, 2024, the first day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Vance learned that he'd been chosen by Trump as his running mate in the 2024 United States presidential campaign.

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The Trumps welcome Vance -

Pictured: Donald Trump places his hand on JD Vance's arm during the balloon drop at the Fiserv Forum on the last day of the RNC in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024.

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Face-to-face -

The Yale-educated venture capitalist, best-selling author, and war veteran, his rift with Trump consigned to history, was now the vice-presidential nominee.

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Ascending star -

At 40 years old, JD Vance is one of the youngest vice-presidential nominees in US history.

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Immigration issues -

JD Vance's views on immigration largely echo Donald Trump. One of his first campaign events after accepting the vice-presidential nomination was a visit to the US-Mexico border in Hereford, Arizona, on August 1. Vance says he wants to finish building the border wall and favors what he calls a merit-based system for immigrants seeking to settle in the United States.

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Defense issues -

The Republican vice-presidential candidate's position on defense and national security is well known. He has been a steadfast supporter of Israel throughout the country's war in Gaza, while acknowledging the civilian casualties in Gaza—"our heart certainly goes out to them"—and is a leading critic of US support for Ukraine.

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Usha Chilukuri -

JD Vance met his future wife, Usha Chilukuri, at Yale Law School. Born in San Diego, she is of Indian heritage, her family having migrated from Andhra Pradesh in the 1980s.

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Interfaith relationship -

Chilukuri and Vance married in 2014 in Kentucky, in an interfaith marriage ceremony. She is a practicing Hindu, and her husband is a Christian.

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Family man -

The couple has two sons, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter named Mirabel.

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A good husband and a good dad -

In his speech at the RNC, Vance said: "My most important American dream was becoming a good husband and a good dad."

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Greatest accomplishment -

"I wanted to give my kids the things that I didn't have when I was growing up," he added. "And that's the accomplishment that I'm proudest of."

Sources: (Politico) (Today) (NPR) (The Guardian) (Associated Press) (The New York Times) 

See also: American presidents and vice presidents who didn't like each other

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