Although President Donald Trump is the Democratic Party’s primary opponent, some of its most ambitious leaders are increasingly shifting their focus to Vice President JD Vance. A recent example of this was Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s visit to Vance’s home county in Ohio.
During a speech on Saturday night, he falsely claimed that the vice president had abandoned the very communities he wrote about in his memoir that gained him fame. Beshear said “Hillbilly Elegy,” which detailed Vance’s tough early life, had “trafficked in tired stereotypes,” though Vance literally wrote about his life growing up and those around him.
“His book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ was really hillbilly hate,” Beshear whined at a Democratic fundraiser in Butler County. “It is poverty tourism, because he ain’t from Appalachia.” The typical Democratic posturing reflected both Beshear’s presidential aspirations and Vance’s position as the Republican heir apparent to Trump’s coalition.
“With every day that passes, we get closer to a day when Donald Trump is no longer president. And we need to prepare for that day,” Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist, told The Associated Press. “Right now, JD Vance is a clear frontrunner for the 2028 nomination. And so we should begin defining him — not in 2027, not in 2028 — but today.”
Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for the vice president, dismissed Beshear’s criticism as coming from someone who himself is flawed. “Every time Andy Beshear attacks the vice president to try to get himself publicity, he ends up humiliating himself in the process, but maybe that’s something he’s into?” she told the AP.
U.S. Representative Ro Khanna of California was one of the first Democrats to focus on J.D. Vance last year. Khanna visited the City Club of Cleveland and Yale University, where both he and Vance studied law, and delivered speeches aiming to portray Vance as more extreme than Donald Trump.
In November, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is also a potential presidential contender in 2028, specifically called out Vance while arguing that the Trump administration did not prioritize the needs of working people. “At least with Donald Trump, he’s transparent about that,” Shapiro said. “JD Vance is a total phony.”
Smith, the strategist who led Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign and continues to work with the former Biden administration transportation secretary, stated that every criticism of Vance serves as an audition. “There’s definitely value in taking on Vance to show Democrats, hey, this could be me on the debate stage against him,” Smith told the AP.
The vice president was born and raised in Middletown, located in Butler County. He gained prominence with the publication of “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, a book that established him as an authority on explaining Trump’s appeal in middle America, particularly among working-class rural white voters who contributed to Trump’s presidential victory.
Vance carried this reputation into the U.S. Senate, where he was elected in 2022, and later into the vice presidency. His background is likely to play a significant role in any future presidential campaign.
Republicans and right-leaning independents still like Vance the best for the next presidential primary, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved up in a new Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll.
The poll asked 952 Republicans and 225 independents who lean Republican from all over the country to choose from 15 well-known conservative politicians or to pick “someone else” or “not sure.”
The current vice president, Vance, was the clear winner, with 36% of people choosing him. He got almost twice as many votes as Donald Trump Jr., who came in second with 19%. Another 14% said they weren’t sure, bringing the total to 70% of all respondents.
But both Vance and Trump Jr. lost some support since a similar October Voters’ Voice Poll. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on the other hand, gained ground.