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.