Where does Vance stand on issues?

Former President Trump named Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his vice presidential candidate during the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday.

A first-term senator, Vance has made a name for himself as a populist right-wing lawmaker, touting the backing of high-profile donors like Peter Thiel. Author of the bestseller-turned-movie “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance sold himself as a man of humble beginnings in Appalachia, though he spent much of his prepolitics career in venture capital in the Bay Area.

Initially a staunch Trump critic during the 2016 presidential campaign, once even calling the former president “America’s Hitler,” Vance was elected to the Senate in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement and has since become one of his closest allies.

Here’s where the Republican vice presidential candidate stands on major issues.

Abortion

Vance has taken a hard-line stance against abortion for much of his career but appears to have since tempered his remarks on the issue.

He campaigned for Senate on a promise to “end abortion,” according to his campaign issues page, and called himself “100 percent pro-life.” The issues page was removed after Vance was named the vice presidential nominee and now redirects to the Trump campaign.

He’s also described abortion as “the first political issue I can ever remember caring about” and lobbied against a state ballot measure last year that codified abortion access in Ohio. Vance compared abortion to murder in a post following the ballot measure’s passage.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a prominent anti-abortion group, gave Vance an A+ on its National Pro-Life Scorecard.

While previously coming out against exceptions to abortion access in the cases of rape or incest when advocating for a ban on the procedure, Vance has since backed limited exceptions for the sake of “political reality.”

The senator has attempted to walk back some of those remarks in recent days, saying earlier this month he fully supports Trump’s abortion policy to leave the issue to states, calling the former president a “pragmatic leader” for the approach in an interview with “Meet the Press”.

Vance also said he supports a Supreme Court decision last month to federally protect access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Ukraine

Vance is one of the Senate’s loudest skeptics of American support for Ukraine, as it continues to fend off an invasion by Russia, and is a major proponent of “America First” foreign policy. 

Vance “remains opposed to virtually any proposal for the United States to continue funding this war,” he wrote in an April New York Times op-ed.

Vance has also encouraged diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I’ve never once argued that Putin is a kind and friendly person. I’ve argued that he’s a person with distinct interests, and the United States has to respond to that person with distinct interests,” Vance said at the Munich Security Conference in February.

“But the fact that he’s a bad guy does not mean we can’t engage in basic diplomacy and prioritizing America’s interests,” he continued. “There are a lot of bad guys all over the world, and I’m much more interested in some of the problems in East Asia right now than I am in Europe.”

Election integrity

Vance has echoed Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was “stolen.” He affirmed in February that he still believes there were “problems” with the election.

The senator has also downplayed the violence that took place during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Vance said he in May he was “skeptical” then-Vice President Mike Pence’s life was ever in danger. Vance also said he would have chosen not to certify the 2020 election results without pro-Trump electors in a February interview with ABC “This Week”.

Both Trump and Vance have planted seeds of doubt about the 2024 election, with the vice presidential nominee saying he will only accept the results of the vote if they are “free and fair.”

“I totally plan to accept the results of 2024; I think Donald Trump will be the victor. And if it’s a free and fair election, Dana, I think every Republican will enthusiastically accept the results,” Vance said during a May interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.

He’s also advocated against widespread use of mail-in ballots, a position that puts him at odds with Trump, saying the process creates “extraordinary opportunities for fraud.”

LGBTQ rights

LGBTQ advocacy organizations have criticized Vance’s rhetoric and legislative record as harmful to the community.

Vance “has a history of spewing anti-LGBTQ+ vitriol,” Human Rights Campaign said in a statement following his announcement as Trump’s running mate.

Vance has supported and defended the use of “groomer” to describe LGBTQ people, backing false tropes of LGBTQ connections to pedophilia.

Vance also said during his 2022 Senate campaign that he would oppose the Respect for Marriage Act, which legalized same-sex marriage, and has answered in an issues survey that he “strongly disagreed” sexual orientation and gender identity should receive protections from discrimination.

The Ohio senator introduced a bill to ban access to gender-affirming care for minors in the upper chamber last year, as well as one to prevent the State Department from allowing “X” gender markers on passports. Neither bill was advanced in committee.

Immigration

Vance has advocated for a strict border crackdown and mass deportations, a position that puts him in line with Trump. He has often explained his position as a way to protect American jobs, specifically for native-born workers.

The senator has also backed finishing construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and said he would “oppose every attempt to grant amnesty” to immigrants who arrived here illegally, instead backing merit-based reforms.

“Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans,” he said in the first ad for his 2022 Senate campaign. “With more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.”