JD Vance
Postliberal; US Senator (Ohio); Vice President of the United States (2025–); author of Hillbilly Elegy (2016)
Who He Is
JD Vance is the most prominent politician associated with the Postliberal camp of the MAGA New Right. Field describes his political rise as having been “in nearly perfect — and radicalizing — lockstep with the growth of the New Right movement.” He identifies closely with the “postliberal right” and is an admirer of Patrick Deneen.
Trump chose Vance as his running mate in 2024 — a moment the Claremonters received with jubilation.
Intellectual Affiliations
- Postliberal: Vance draws heavily on Deneen’s critique of liberalism, including its critique of economic neoliberalism, individualism, and the hollowing out of community
- Claremonter-adjacent: He has spoken at Claremont Institute events
- NatCon: He was a speaker at three of the four US National Conservatism conferences between 2019 and 2024
- Peter Thiel’s network: Thiel was an early financial backer and patron; Thiel’s Silicon Valley tech-right world overlaps with Vance’s trajectory
From Hillbilly Elegy to Trumpism
Vance’s 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy was initially read as a sympathetic but critical account of Appalachian white working-class culture — a book liberals could appreciate as an explanation of Trump voters. By the time Vance ran for Senate in Ohio (2022), he had undergone a dramatic ideological transformation, becoming one of the most strident voices of MAGA New Right politics.
Key Positions
- Against free trade and economic globalism
- Strongly anti-immigration
- Skeptical of US support for Ukraine (“I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine”)
- Sympathetic to Catholic social teaching and communitarian economics
- Has expressed views on gender and the family that Field characterizes as part of the New Right’s “obsession with masculinity” (she co-authored a Politico piece on his “bunch of weird views on gender”)
The 2024 Election and Vice Presidency
July 15, 2024: Trump announced Vance as running mate at the Republican National Convention — one week after the July 13 Pennsylvania assassination attempt. The choice was understood as designed to please the New Right: Vance had been “a darling of the movement from its earliest days, and a fixture in New Right spaces of all kinds.” Unlike Deneen and Vermeule, and more like Thiel, “Vance never kept his distance from the New Right’s more activist and imprudent expressions.” He attended NatCon conferences, spoke at Claremont Institute events, appeared on niche podcasts like Jack Murphy Live and American Moment.
The “childless cat ladies” moment: A phrase from a 2021 interview — describing Democratic Party leaders as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives… and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too” — went viral during the 2024 campaign. Field: “The line, and others that Vance used, might as well have come from Bronze Age Mindset or The Case for Christian Nationalism.”
The Harris-Walz contrast: Biden withdrew July 21, 2024; Harris gained the nomination. Minnesota governor Tim Walz — working-class background, modest career as coach and teacher — drew a dramatic contrast with Vance. “Vance’s culture-warrior style seemed, briefly, like a liability.” Vance appeared frustrated: he and his “mostly male staff” approached Harris’s official plane Air Force Two on a Wisconsin tarmac in a performative confrontation, posting a photo on X joking “This Entourage reboot is going to be awesome.”
Springfield, Ohio Haitian conspiracy: By summer’s end, Trump and Vance were spreading false stories about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio — Vance’s own district — leading to bomb threats and school closures. Vance, confronted: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” Field: “I guess it’s what they call a noble lie.” Vance “outshone Governor Walz” in their debate and ultimately stepped onto Air Force Two as Vice President of the United States.
Significance
Vance represents the mainstreaming of postliberal ideas into electoral politics. As Vice President, he is the highest-ranking political figure directly identified with the intellectual New Right. His trajectory illustrates Field’s core argument: the radicalization was mutual — intellectuals radicalized politicians and politicians radicalized intellectuals.
Cross-References
- Postliberalism — his intellectual home
- Patrick Deneen — his most cited intellectual influence
- National Conservatism — conferences where he regularly spoke
- The Claremonters — adjacent movement he has addressed
- Peter Thiel — patron and ideological ally
- Furious Minds — Field dedicates significant attention to Vance’s gender views (Ch. 11)