The View On Vance

Photo via: vance.senate.gov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On July 15, 2024, former President Donald Trump announced that Sen. JD Vance would be his running mate for the upcoming presidential election. This announcement caused a lot of different reactions from the midwest, specifically Appalachia. 

Vance was born Aug. 2, 1984 in Middletown, Ohio, and is most known for his best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” He wrote about his experiences growing up in working-class Appalachia and how his mother’s struggles with addiction affected his life. This novel skyrocketed his professional career and even more so after the release of the film adaptation in 2020. 

In 2022, Vance defeated the democratic nominee, Tim Ryan, for a seat in the Ohio Senate. The victory ultimately led to Trump choosing Vance as his running mate.

Nerissa Young, an Ohio U journalism professor and Appalachia native, is originally from  Maybeury, West Virginia. Young grew up with a nuclear family and a strong sense of community around her, one that  valued the idea of neighbors helping neighbors. 

When asked if she had read or seen “Hillbilly Elegy,” Young said, “I have neither read the book nor watched the film, and that is on purpose. I heard about the portrayals from [Appalachian] people who were upset and did not like those portrayals, and I thought I have seen and done enough of the stereotypes that I am not going to read this. I am not going to lend any type of support for this project.”

Themes and stereotypes about Appalachian people have been emerging in literature and entertainment for decades, most popularly the narrative of the “hillbilly.” Stereotypes about poverty, moonshining, feuding, gun culture and more have created a poor perception of Appalachian people. This can create a skewed image of the region and the people who live there.

Young recalled reading a best-selling novel supposedly telling moving stories about Appalachia, but the reality left  her appalled at the stereotypes and the light in which Appalachian people were painted. 

“For some people, that was their existence, unknown to me because they weren’t part of my sphere,” Young said. “I am not denying the reality of some of that, but these portrayals show us all as being the same. A monolith of shiftless mountaineers.” 

For many people, the novelty of a hillbilly going to Yale and becoming a lawyer is reason enough to support Vance, and it became a large selling point for his novel. Young believes that it is entirely possible that Vance used the stereotypes of Appalachian people to his favor in his novel. 

“Nobody wants to read a story about a kid who grew up in Maybeury where they were happy, well-adjusted, and had a loving family in the church and in their community. That’s not interesting,” Young said. “If what I have heard about “Hillbilly Elegy” is true, my guess is that it has tapped into many of those stereotypes.”

The opinion that Young holds is not uncommon among midwestern and Appalachian voters. Furthermore, voters across the country hold an unfavorable opinion of Vance. As of the beginning of September, Vance hit an unpopularity rate in the double digits with 44.4% of people viewing him unfavorably and just 33.9% of people viewing him favorably, according to the polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight,. 

Tyler Daddabbo, a sophomore at Miami University, discussed his experience living in Middletown. “I lived in Middletown from the ages of 12-15, which covered a lot of my formative years in my opinion,” Daddabbo said. 

In “Hillbilly Elegy,” there are themes of abuse, drugs and poverty that paint the whole of Middletown in a bad light. While Daddabbo acknowledged that there are areas where such problems exist,“Hillbilly Elegy” reinforces the negative picture that Middletown has been trying to repaint. 

“Along with anywhere in the world, it all depends on where you are,” Daddabbo said.“Some parts of Middletown definitely experienced [drugs, abuse, and poverty] more than others, but I wouldn’t say that Middletown as a whole deals with this.”  

At a governmental level, some representatives in West Virginia also have negative feelings about Vance, his career and the stereotypes he willingly pushes and perpetuates. Current candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates, Olivia Dowler, also offered her input on Vance. 

“I do not believe that [Vance] has nearly enough experience to be the vice president of the United States, as he has only been involved in politics for 18 months,” Dowler said. “He also previously hated Trump and was very open about it.”  

Vance previously spoke out about Trump and how he believed Trump was not fit for the presidency, even going so far as to call him an “idiot” and saying that he was “reprehensible.” These views soon changed, and by the time he was chosen to be Trump’s running mate, he had become an ardent defender of the former president. Democrats and Republicans alike voiced concerns that Vance  was more focused on building his own reputation than prioritizing the genuine needs and wants of the people voting for him. 

Candidate for West Virginia Governor, Steve Williams, corroborated Dowler’s beliefs saying, “JD Vance reminds me how proud I am of my home, because I know he’s a fraud who has no idea what it means to be Appalachian.”

However, not all midwesterners hold a negative view of Vance. Adviser for the Ohio University College Republicans, Richard Vedder, shared his views on Vance. 

“He is clearly an example of someone who has achieved the American Dream,” Vedder said, “someone who has come from a humble background and succeeded at a young age very spectacularly.”  

Even though Vedder has a high opinion of Vance, he added that he does not necessarily believe that Vance’s political choices have always been right. 

“I don’t think his political judgments are all that smart myself, if you ask me,” Vedder said. “I was a little surprised when Trump appointed him as his vice presidential candidate.” 

Vedder also noted that it seems like Vance is trying to make himself appear more down to Earth to appeal to rural voters. 

“I think [Vance] is trying to set himself as a different type of Republican. That is to say, not all Republicans belong to country clubs or are upper middle class rich people,” Vedder stated. “They can be downhome people.” 

To Vedder, it seems like Vance has been used in the Trump campaign to gain ground with blue-collar rural individuals that might not have otherwise identified with Trump. 

Regardless of one’s views on Vance or political affiliation, the only way to make voices heard is to register to vote and hit the polls on Nov. 5.