First Posted: Jul 05, 2021 11:20 PM EDT
Photo : Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance had backed away from his tweets criticizing former President Donald Trump amid his Ohio Senate bid.
J.D. Vance announced his candidacy last week as Ohio Senator Rob Portman is set to retire, Business Insider report. The best-selling author now faces his first controversy after Andrew Kaczynski of CNN retrieved several of Vance s tweets criticizing Trump.
The Hillbilly Elegy author addressed the tweets during an interview with Fox News Alicia Acuna on Monday, July 5, saying he regrets his former stance.
JD Vance: Trump whisperer turned Senate hopeful
His bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy captured a cultural moment around the rise of Donald Trump. Its author, a child of the hardscrabble Appalachians turned Yale law graduate and venture capitalist, is now being courted for a Senate run. Could JD Vance be the Republicans next big thing?
James David Bowman, later Vance, was born in Middletown, Ohio, in the heart of the US Rust Belt, in 1984. His mother, Bev Vance, struggled with addiction, first to alcohol, then drugs. His parents split up when he was still a toddler; his father, Don Bowman, was largely absent for the early years of the young JD s life.