MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist and author who turned his childhood in southwest Ohio into a best‑selling memoir, jumped into Ohio's U.S. Senate race on Thursday, branding himself as a conservative outsider in a crowded GOP field.
"I think we need people in Washington who are not only fighters, but smart fighters — there are a lot of fighters in Washington, they just fight for the wrong things," Mr. Vance said.
The announcement at a tubing factory in his hometown, 30 minutes south of Dayton, injects more drama and some celebrity into Ohio's already contentious race to replace Sen. Rob Portman in 2022.
Mr. Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy, came out in 2016, the same year that Donald Trump tapped into the economic anxieties of rural Ohioans and Midwesterners to clinch the presidency. His memoir was credited with explaining Mr. Trump's appeal to white, working‑class voters in places such as Appalachian Kentucky, where Mr. Vance has family roots.
But Mr. Vance, who didn't vote for Mr. Trump in 2016 and hasn't said how he voted in 2020, will have to navigate a Republican field where support for the former president is a litmus test for the conservative base.
In a sweltering warehouse at Middletown Tube Works — attendees used campaign signs with "J.D. Vance for Senate. Conservative. Outsider." to fan themselves — Mr. Vance rehashed his upbringing and also previewed the culture war issues defining his nascent campaign: immigration, tech censorship, and critical race theory, the academic term used to describe the study of how racial bias impacts American institutions.
"Don't you dare complain or you're stupid or a racist or a bigot, or you're trying to destroy the planet. That's the game they play," he said, referring to liberals and "elites."
Kaitlyn Shelton, a 24‑year‑old bartender at The Slice in downtown Middletown, said she's never voted but would consider supporting the candidate from Middletown. She never read Mr. Vance's memoir, but thought the Netflix movie adaptation with Amy Adams and Glenn Close captured the city well.
"For Middletown it's pretty accurate, the depiction of how generations go through things, like if you were born into a hard setting it's hard to get out," she said.
In his memoir, Mr. Vance describes a chaotic childhood with an addicted mother in the former mill town between Cincinnati and Dayton. He escaped by enlisting in the Marines, then attended Ohio State University and Yale Law School. After graduating, he worked in California's Silicon Valley and returned to Ohio in 2017 to start a venture capital firm aimed at projects in underserved areas. In 2019, he founded Narya Capital with backing from his mentor and PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who has also poured $10 million into a PAC supporting Mr. Vance's political ambitions.
"When I look back, I can't believe how lucky I've been and all the incredible blessing I've had," he said, noting how his wife, Usha Chilukuri, his sister, and his parents were in the crowd. "What I worry about is that America isn't working as well for a lot of people as it worked for me."
Mr. Vance is working with former advisers to Republican Gov. John Kasich, who ran against Mr. Trump in 2016. He considered running for Senate in 2018, but never launched a campaign.
His GOP rivals in the Senate race include investment banker Mike Gibbons, former state treasurer Josh Mandel, luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur Bernie Moreno, and former Ohio GOP chairman Jane Timken.
Mr. Vance will face questions about his earlier lack of support for GOP candidates, including Mr. Trump, and his criticism of Big Tech after forging a career in the tech sector and launching a campaign with the backing of Mr. Thiel, an early Facebook investor and tech billionaire.
"We're gonna break up their monopolies. We're gonna make it illegal for them to steal your data and sell it back to you. And if they censor conservatives, we're gonna make them pay," he said.
He mentioned Mr. Trump briefly on Thursday, saying he was at Mr. Trump's rally Saturday with his father. Mr. Trump has yet to endorse in the Senate race.
"While others voted for Evan McMullin, bashed President Trump and his supporters, sat on the sidelines, or quit the tough fights, Jane Timken is the only true America First candidate who fought in the trenches over the last five years for President Trump and his winning policies for Ohio," Ms. Timken's spokesman Mandi Merritt said.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan is the only major candidate who's entered so far on the Democratic side.
First Published July 2, 2021, 12:34 a.m.
