JD Vance in The Cleveland Plain-Dealer

On Abortion: Preserve access to Mifepristone medication abortion

U.S. Sen. JD Vance said he supports last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision that preserves access to medication abortion -- a reversal on Vance's platform when he ran for the Senate as an uncompromising abortion opponent.

Vance in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press [this week] is softening his former anti -abortion stance in the wake of that proposed GOP platform that doesn't call for a national abortion ban. On Meet the Press, he said he supported the Supreme Court decision to allow Mifepristone access. This is one of the abortion drugs and he says it should be legally accessible.

He says, "Donald Trump supports it and so do I." But Donald Trump didn't use to support it, and back in 2022, when Vance was running for Senate, he was an abortion hardliner. Vance said he was 100% pro -life. He wanted to end abortion once and for all.

Source: Cleveland Plain-Dealer on 2024 Vice-Presidential hopefuls Jul 11, 2024

On Civil Rights: Cultural isolation makes whites susceptible to xenophobia

[Before entering the Senate race], Vance argued that an element of cultural isolation and "ugly racial attitudes" among poorer, white voters made them more susceptible to xenophobic appeals from politicians like Trump. Vance discussed racism and xenophobia among pro-Trump voters in a [more conciliatory] way: "My biggest fear with Trump is that, because of the failures of the Republican and Democratic elites, the bar for the white working class is too low," he said in 2016. "They're willing to listen to Trump about rapist immigrants and banning all Muslims because other parts of his message are clearly legitimate. A lot of people think Trump is the first to appeal to the racism and xenophobia that were already there, but I think he's making the problem worse."

Asked about his shifting rhetoric on race, the Vance campaign replied, "The establishment media loves to inject race into every conversation, but voters aren't dumb, and that's exactly why trust in the media is at a record low."

Source: Cleveland Plain-Dealer on 2024 Vice-Presidential hopefuls Jul 18, 2021

On Principles & Values: Attended Trump hush money trial in NYC

Sen. JD Vance joined a crowded New York courtroom to catch some of the criminal trial of former Republican President Donald Trump. Why is JD Vance, senator from Ohio, sitting in the courtroom during the trial of former President Donald Trump, instead of conducting Ohio's business in Washington?

My best guess is that he's campaigning hard to be the vice presidential pick for Trump. He was among several Republicans that attended Trump's hush money trial in New York City yesterday as Michael Cohen took the stand and Vance made several tweets on X. He says the trial is psychological torture.

He dissed key witness and former Trump fixer, Michael Cohen. And then he says that district attorney Alvin Bragg is keeping supporters away from outside of the courthouse. [Vance said], "We started in Trump Tower with a beautiful view of Central Park and then came to a dingy courthouse with people like Alvin Bragg. And he says Trump is expected to sit for six weeks and listen to the Michael Cohens of the world."

Source: Cleveland Plain-Dealer on 2024 Vice-Presidential hopefuls May 14, 2024

On Abortion: People don't want blanket abortion bans; exceptions ok

[In the 2022 Republican Senate primary, Vance said], he wanted to end abortion once and for all. And he defended the lack of exceptions for rape and incest. Then when he won the GOP nomination later that year, he was endorsed by Ohio Right to Life and ended debate with his Democratic challenger, Tim Ryan. He said he supported reasonable exceptions without being specific about those exceptions. So a slight softening there.

In November of 2023, after Ohio approved the abortion rights amendment by 57%, he says we must accept that people don't want blanket abortion bans, and he says that the Republican party has lost the voters' trust.

If he's doing this because he did learn from the vote that he's not in line with Ohio, then I would give credit to him. Is he doing the right thing by absorbing the sentiment of Ohio, who he represents and saying, "okay, I better represent my state because that's what they want." Or is he a rank opportunist that's just sucking up to Trump?

Source: Cleveland Plain-Dealer on 2024 Vice-Presidential hopefuls Jul 11, 2024

The above quotations are from Media coverage of OH political races in The Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Click here for other excerpts from Media coverage of OH political races in The Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Click here for other excerpts by JD Vance. Click here for a profile of JD Vance.
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Page last updated: Jul 21, 2024