JD Vance Fast Facts

CNN —

Here is a look at the life of JD Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio and vice presidential nominee.

Personal

Birth date: August 2, 1984

Birth place: Middletown, Ohio

Birth name: James Donald Bowman

Father: Donald Bowman

Mother: BeverlyAikins, nurse

Marriage: Usha (Chilukuri) Vance (2014-present)

Children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel

Education: Ohio State University, B.A., 2009; Yale Law School, J.D., 2013

Military service: US Marine Corps, 2003–2007, Corporal

Religion: Catholic

Other Facts

Served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

His mother struggled with drug addiction. Was raised mainly by his maternal grandparents.

Has had multiple middle and last name changes: James Donald Bowman, James David Hamel and James David Vance. Initially, his middle and last names changed when his mother remarried. When he married, he and his wife changed their last name to Vance.

Yale law professor Amy Chua convinced Vance to write his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”

Was a key voice in the “Never Trump” movement during the 2016 presidential election and has publicly criticized former President Donald Trump. Vance liked tweets in 2016 and 2017 that harshly criticized Trump and his policies, and in a review of Vance’s media appearances by CNN’s KFile, has made anti-Trump comments in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Vance deleted past anti-Trump tweets ahead of his announcement in July 2021 that he would run for the open Ohio Senate seat.

Timeline

2014-2015 - Works as a litigator with Sidley Austin.

2016-2017 - Works at Mithril Capital Management.

June 28, 2016 - “Hillbilly Elegy,” which chronicles Vance’s childhood in a poor Rust Belt town in Ohio, is published.

March 27,