American venture capitalist, lawyer, and best-selling author James David Vance, best known as JD Vance, has just stepped into the international spotlight by becoming Republican candidate and former US President Donald Trump’s choice as his running mate for the upcoming November US Presidential election, it was announced on Monday.
The 39-year-old retired US-Marine-turned-politician, who will be named US Vice President if Donald Trump wins the election, described his difficult childhood in Appalachian Ohio and detailed the challenges he faced as part of the white working class of modern-day America in the 2016 best-seller memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
Although it met with controversy in the region, the book’s nationwide publishing success led to a drama movie adaptation by Imagine Entertainment, released in 2020, currently available for streaming on Netflix, which owns the international distribution rights.
The biopic describes JD Vance’s childhood troubles amidst his mother’s substance abuse problems, his years of service in Iraq and university studies, and his personal happily-ever-after with his girlfriend.
J.D. Vance movie receives mixed reactions
Directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, and Gabriel Basso, Hillbilly Elegy received mixed—if not contrasting—reviews, as many critics thought the movie reinforced stereotypes.
It received three nominations at the Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Director for Howard, Worst Screenplay for Taylor, and Worst Supporting Actress for Close, who played the role of Vance’s grandmother, Bonnie.
Paradoxically, it also earned Close nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and Screen Actors Guild Awards, while Adams’ performance earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.
This made Glenn Close the third performer in history to be nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Raspberry Award for the same performance.
Several books have attempted to rebut the negative image of the region painted by Vance in Hillbilly Elegy. The same year as the movie’s release, the memoir received a bold response from Vance’s childhood community in the form of another book under the title Appalachian Reckoning; A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy.
Hillbilly Elegy‘s success led to JD Vance’s accession to US politics
As viewers might observe, Vance’s memoir and movie narrative ends where his political career begins with the one somehow leading to the other.
A former critic of Trump, Vance became sought after as a lecturer and political commentator following the release of Hillbilly Elegy. This is because the memoir served as insight into the lives of working-class whites living outside major cities. It offered an explanation as to why this group of Americans supported a political outsider like Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential elections.
Often rumored as a potential political candidate, he reportedly considered running for the US Senate in 2018 but declined to enter the race. He eventually did so when Ohio’s junior US Senator Republican Rob Portman announced he would not seek reelection when his term came to an end in 2022.
Entering the race to replace Portman, Vance publicly apologized for his past criticism of Trump, aligned himself with the former President’s policies, and even repeated the latter’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Whether there were motivations for doing so is unknown.
Upon defeating Democratic candidate Tim Ryan, Vance was sworn in as junior Senator of Ohio in January 2023.
