J.D. Vance’s rise from the Appalachian poverty of Middletown, Ohio, to the heights of U.S. politics is a testament to both the complexity of his personal journey and the ambition that has characterized his adult life. While his personal background—growing up in a struggling family with a drug-addicted mother—initially evoked widespread sympathy, the calculated moves Vance has made since he left behind Middletown have revealed a more defining characteristic: a relentless drive to climb the social ladder. Hence, the title of our latest post – The Climber: J.D. Vance and the Slippery Pole of Social Ascendancy.
We think it captures Vance pretty well. But you decide.
Vance’s early life in a broken household is well-known due to his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, wherein he recounts his chaotic upbringing and the influence of his grandmother, who steered him toward a better path. His time in the U.S. Marines and at Ohio State University were critical steps in his self-reinvention.
Joining the Marines, a common route for many trying to escape small-town struggles, provided him with discipline and structure. His time at Ohio State and his subsequent acceptance into Yale Law School signaled a major leap, not only in terms of academic achievement but also in his exposure to elite networks and institutions far removed from his humble roots.
It was at Yale where Vance’s metamorphosis into an unusually adept social climber began to solidify. Surrounded by privilege and access to power, Vance—who once prided himself on being an outsider—soon began molding himself to fit the halls of influence. Post-law school, his trajectory was carefully curated. He worked in venture capital and positioned himself within Silicon Valley circles, marking his shift from underdog memoirist to ambitious professional with aspirations beyond finance.
But Vance’s most notable and telling career move has come in the realm of politics.
From Critic to Courtier
When Donald Trump first emerged as a serious contender for the presidency in 2016, Vance was openly critical and, indeed, contemptuous of him. Vance called Trump “cultural heroin” for the working-class voters who flocked to his rallies, suggesting that Trump was offering empty promises to disillusioned Americans similar to those in Vance’s own hometown community.
Vance’s critique of Trump set him apart from the populist wave sweeping through the Republican Party. Vance initially seemed both removed from MAGA populism and skeptical of its promises to turn around the struggling ‘Rust Belt’ and rebuild American industry.
In a dramatic reversal, however, Vance recalibrated his stance on Trump as he entered the political arena himself. In the years leading up to his 2022 Senate campaign, Vance shed his prior criticisms and became an enthusiastic supporter of the former president. The transformation was stark: the same man who once warned about Trump’s corrosive influence was now assiduously courting the MAGA base, eager to align himself with Trump’s aggressive and paranoid brand of politics.
In Greymantle’s view, Vance’s shift was not an organic evolution in political thought, but a transparent calculation. J.D. Vance recognized that, in today’s Republican Party, loyalty to Trump is the fastest route to political viability. His turnaround on Trump was less about principle and more about naked self-promotion —an opportunistic pivot designed to win over voters in a polarized environment.
This transformation from outspoken Trump critic to loyal courtier illustrates the essence of Vance’s character. Again and again, Vance has shown a willingness to reinvent himself to suit the demands of the moment and swiftly grab at any opportunity to advance himself socially, trading the authenticity he once espoused for the political expediency necessary to climb higher.
To put it another way: J.D. Vance is quite willing to sell his soul to whatever devil can speed his climb to the top of the ‘slippery pole‘ as Benjamin Disraeli once nicknamed a career in politics.
A Personal Ideology of Self-Promotion
For J.D. Vance, politics appears to be less about ideology and more about positioning. His evolution is the story of a man who, recognizing the shifting winds of power, made the necessary sacrifices to ensure his own ascent. It’s a move characteristic of a careerist—one who, rather than standing firm on principle, adjusts to whatever conditions will most benefit his upward trajectory.
In this sense, Vance’s career is a study in the art of social climbing. He leveraged his upbringing in a broken, Scots-Irish family as a stepping stone, but it was his post-educational maneuvering that truly paved his way. As a political figure, Vance may now claim to represent the working-class values he came from, but his path reveals a much more calculated and elite-focused strategy for success.
The question remains whether independent voters will see Vance as a man who embodies their own struggles or as yet another slick opportunist willing to shift allegiances to suit his own ambitions.
J.D. Vance’s journey from Yale Law School to the corridors of corporate power and venture capital was as much about networking and timing as it was about his intelligence. While Vance’s background as a poor Appalachian boy made him stand out among his classmates, it was his calculated career decisions and strategic alliances that propelled him into elite circles that ultimately supported his run for the U.S. Senate in 2022 and his run for the U.S. Vice Presidency in 2024.
Yale Law School: A Gateway to Power
When Vance entered Yale Law School in 2010, he was already on a path of self-transformation. Yale was a stark contrast to his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, a struggling Rust Belt town with few prospects. At Yale, Vance found himself among the nation’s future leaders and power brokers, surrounded by classmates who hailed from wealthy families and prestigious academic backgrounds. But instead of being daunted by his outsider status, Vance saw Yale as an opportunity to redefine himself.
One of the most significant influences during Vance’s time at Yale was his professor, Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Chua became a mentor to Vance, helping him navigate the insular world of Yale and encouraging him to tell his story in what would eventually become his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. Chua’s mentorship not only helped Vance solidify his academic standing but also connected him with key figures who would later become instrumental in his career.
Vance’s time at Yale was not merely about academic achievement. It was also where he began building a network of influential contacts that would serve him well after graduation. His experiences at Yale exposed him to a new world of privilege and access, and Vance quickly learned how to navigate this environment to his advantage. By the time he graduated in 2013, he had not only earned a law degree from one of the most prestigious institutions in the country but also forged relationships that would open doors in the corporate and financial worlds.
Transition into the Corporate and Business World
After graduating from Yale Law School, Vance could have followed the typical path of many elite law school graduates by joining a top-tier law firm. Instead, he opted for a more unconventional route, entering the world of corporate consulting. Vance joined the law firm Sidley Austin, but his tenure there was brief. He soon moved on to work as a principal at Mithril Capital Management (‘Mithril’), a venture capital firm founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel.
This transition from law to venture capital marked a significant pivot in Vance’s career. Rather than pursuing a traditional legal career, he capitalized on his newfound connections and leveraged them to enter the world of finance and technology. Vance’s shift into venture capital was not only a reflection of his desire to accumulate wealth but also a strategic move to position himself in Silicon Valley, a hub of innovation, power, and influence.
Meeting Peter Thiel: A Key Political Patron
Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire and co-founder of PayPal, became a pivotal figure in Vance’s career. Thiel, a staunch libertarian with a reputation for backing unconventional candidates, saw in Vance a kindred spirit—someone who had transcended humble beginnings to rise through the ranks of the elite. Their relationship began when Vance joined Mithril, one of Thiel’s investment firms.
Thiel’s mentorship and financial backing would become crucial to Vance’s future political aspirations. Thiel, who had previously supported other political outsiders like Donald Trump, was drawn to Vance’s background and his ability to connect with working-class voters. Over time, their relationship deepened, with Thiel becoming one of Vance’s most important financial and ideological supporters. When Vance decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, Thiel contributed significant funding to his campaign, helping him secure the Republican nomination in a crowded primary.
From 2018 to 2021: The Path to Politics
After the success of Hillbilly Elegy in 2016, Vance became a sought-after commentator on issues of class, culture, and politics. He wrote op-eds, appeared on television shows, and gave speeches, becoming a voice for those left behind in America’s post-industrial economy. However, despite his growing public profile, Vance largely avoided taking overtly political positions during the years immediately following the book’s release.
From 2018 to 2021, Vance focused on building his business career while maintaining a public presence as a commentator. He served as a managing partner at Narya Capital, a venture capital firm he co-founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, with backing from Thiel and other Silicon Valley figures. The firm focused on investing in Midwestern startups, positioning Vance as someone interested in revitalizing the economy of the heartland—a narrative that would serve him well in his future Senate campaign.
During this period, Vance’s political views began to evolve, particularly regarding Donald Trump. In 2016, Vance had been a vocal critic of Trump, calling him “cultural heroin” for white working-class voters. But by 2018, Vance began softening his stance, recognizing that Trump’s brand of populism resonated with the very voters he hoped to reach in the future. This shift was not lost on observers, who noted that Vance was positioning himself for a potential political run in a Republican Party dominated by Trump.
Vance’s activities from 2018 to 2021 appear to have been carefully curated to prepare him for a future in politics. He cultivated relationships with big-name Republican donors, refined his public image as a champion of the forgotten working class, and laid the groundwork for his 2022 Senate campaign. By the time he announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate in 2021, Vance had successfully transformed himself from a Silicon Valley venture capitalist into a populist candidate who could appeal to both the Republican base and disaffected, hard-core MAGA voters.
2022 Senate Campaign: Leaning into MAGA
J.D. Vance entered the 2022 Ohio campaign for the U.S. Senate with a number of glaring weaknesses: he had never run for or held statewide office in the State of Ohio, he was a Yale-educated venture capitalist attempting to win working class votes, and he had criticized Donald Trump using very unflattering terms in the recent past, particularly during Trump’s successful 2016 campaign for president. When he first announced his campaign in late 2021, many Ohio GOP insiders believed his prospects were weak.
The GOP primary to fill the seat held by Ohio Senate Republican Rob Portman was a crowded and fiercely competitive one. Vance had to run against former Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel and Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan, among other candidates who were as well-known in Ohio as was Vance. All of the other primary contenders had strong conservative bona fides and close ties to the Ohio Republican establishment centered around Governor Mike DeWine.
However, none of the other primary candidates were willing to get as close to Donald Trump or prove their fealty to him as completely as did Vance. Vance met with Trump on several occasions in late 2021 and early 2022, and the two men engaged in a number of lengthy telephone conversations. Vance back-tracked on his prior negative statements about Trump, going so far as to delete prior Twitter and blog posts, and to essentially say that he had been completely wrong about Trump. Most critically, Vance fully embraced Trump’s ‘stolen election’ lie about the 2020 election, claiming that Trump had won.
Vance’s abasement before Trump paid off. On April 15, 2022, Donald Trump officially endorsed J.D. Vance for U.S. Senator from Ohio. Trump’s support helped propel Vance from trailing in the polls (which he had been prior to Trump’s endorsement) to a strong contender. Part and parcel with embracing Trump, Vance likewise embraced the full America First agenda of the MAGA Movement, including its fierce anti-immigrant rhetoric and embrace of conspiracy theories.
Peter Thiel also contributed $15 million to a super-PAC supporting Vance, helping to keep Vance competitive in a costly race.
Vance’s strategy of kowtowing to Trump and the big MAGA financiers was a shrewd one politically. Vance won the May 3, 2022 GOP primary with 32.2% of the vote, besting Josh Mandel with 23.9%, Matt Dolan with 23.3%, businessman Mike Gibbons with 12% and former Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken with 5.9% of the vote. Vance’s consolidation of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party behind him in a crowded field ensured his primary victory.
Trump’s support, and the tendency of devoted voters from the two major political parties to dutifully coalesce around their party’s nominee, likewise drove Vance’s victory in the 2022 general mid-term election against Democrat Tim Ryan, a long-serving congressman from Ohio’s 13th District.
Ryan had been sensitive to the bread-and-butter concerns of his mainly working-class constituents throughout his political career. But Ryan’s loyalty to his constituents failed to put him over the top. On November 8, 2022, Vance won the race for U.S. Senate with 53.3% of the vote – virtually the identical margin by which Trump had won Ohio in the 2020 Presidential election two years prior.
Standing on the Brink of Power
Less than two years after being elected to the U.S. Senate, J.D. Vance won his party’s nomination for Vice Presidential candidate in July 2024, after being offered the post by Republican nominee Donald Trump after he cruised to victory in the national GOP primaries.
J.D. Vance now stands at the brink of national power: if elected Vice President, Vance will stand the metaphorical ‘one heart beat away’ from the powers of the U.S. President.
It’s a dizzying climb for a man born into Appalachian poverty and dysfunction a mere 40 years ago. One wonders – and hopes – that Vance appreciates the speed of his climb up the proverbial slippery pole, and the awesome powers that will come with his new position, should he and Trump win.
Whatever Vance may appreciate or not, one thing is clear: Vance is happily doing his master’s bidding at every turn of this campaign. From deploying conspiracies to fiery rhetoric, to echoing his running mate’s wilder statements, Vance is nothing if not dutifully following Mr. Trump’s lead. As every reader doubtless knows, Vance has been the Republican campaign’s point person in laundering Trump’s scandalous accusations that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are capturing and eating their neighbors’ pet cats and dogs, among other outrages supposedly perpetrated by the newcomers.
Vance has taken a great deal of media flack for defending Trump’s September 10 debate comments about the Haitian migrants, along with repeating them. Greymantle supposes that selling one’s soul must require a bit of hard work. Vance admitted to Fox News earlier this month that he was “willing to make up news stories to highlight the suffering of the American people”. Talk about ‘fake news’!
Conclusion: A Calculated Climb
J.D. Vance’s journey from Yale Law School to the U.S. Senate was a carefully orchestrated ascent, marked by strategic alliances and a willingness to shift his public positions to suit the political landscape. His time at Yale gave him access to elite networks, but it was his partnership with Peter Thiel that truly propelled him into the upper echelons of power. From 2018 to 2021, Vance deftly navigated the worlds of business and politics, positioning himself as a future leader in the Republican Party.
As Vance continues his meteoric rise in national politics, it’s clear that his success is not simply the result of hard work or talent—it’s the product of a calculated strategy to align himself with the forces of power and influence. In many ways, Vance’s political career mirrors his personal journey: one of constant adaptation, ambition, and a drive to climb ever higher.
Without doubt, Vance’s climb to stratospheric success from troubled roots is deeply impressive. Vance clearly knows how to think on his feet, is socially astute as well as academically bright, and has the personal ruthlessness to outmaneuver opponents to get ahead, no matter at what cost.
What worries Greymantle is the last consideration – the cost. What will be the cost to the country if Vance and Trump are elected to the top two offices in the nation, and Vance acts as Trump’s enabler and all-to-willing right hand in a constitution-crushing vendetta against political opponents?
Epilogue: Speeding Down the Highway
Greymantle is going to close this post by quoting a brief passage from Hillbilly Elegy in which Vance describes a frightening encounter he had as a 12-year old with his then-alcoholic mother:
“Though Mom had been many things, she hadn’t been a partier. When we moved back to Middletown, that changed. With partying came alcohol, and with alcohol came…even more bizarre behavior.
One day when I was about twelve, Mom did something that I don’t remember now, but I recall running out the door without my shoes and going to Mamaw’s (Vance’s grandmothers’s) house. For two days, I refused to speak to or see my mother. Papaw, worried about the disintegrating relationship between his daughter and her son, begged me to see her.
So I listened to the apology that I’d heard a million times before. Mom was always good at apologies…Deep down, she always felt guilty about the things that happened, and she probably even believed that – as promised – they’d “never happen again”. They always did, though.
This time was no different. Mom was extra-apologetic, because her sin was extra-bad. So her penance was extra-good. She promised to take me to the mall and buy me football cards. Football cards were my kryptonite, so I agreed to join her. It was probably the biggest mistake of my life.
We got on the highway, and I said something which ignited her temper. So she sped up to what seemed a hundred miles per hour and told me that she was going to crash the car and kill us both. I jumped into the back seat, thinking that if I could use two seat belts at once, I’d be more likely to survive the impact. This infuriated her more, so she pulled over to beat the shit out of me. When she did, I leaped out of the car and ran for my life…”
Like no other passage in Hillbilly Elegy, which Greymantle highly recommends to readers, Vance’s account of his mother’s threatened attempt to end her life, and his, in a high-speed car crash when he was 12 vividly illustrates the conditions of extreme emotional stress in which he found himself.
Visible, and Invisible, Scars
Human beings don’t easily transcend the emotional impacts of such experiences, even by achieving personal success and fame. If football cards were Vance’s “kryptonite” at age 12, a personal weakness that could serve as a lever with which to manipulate him, then one can only wonder what form Vance’s kryptonite takes now. Access to the corridors of power, money, national fame – these are powerful tonics. They can fill a void in a person who grew up amid deep financial and personal insecurity.
Whereas Vance’s mother apologized to him for whatever transgression she committed, before snapping back into abusive behavior at a minor provocation, it was Vance who took on the role of apologizer, and supplicant, to Donald Trump when he approached Trump in late 2021 to make amends for his prior criticism and seek his political patronage. One might wonder how these apologies were received, and what price was exacted for Trump’s absolution.
The thing about people who grow up in abusive homes is that their mental scars are easy to spot by the predators who play on human weakness, and seek to exploit that weakness for their own ends. Donald Trump has been called a confidence man and a manipulator, known to dole fierce verbal and mental abuse out on the people who work for him. Peter Thiel has sometimes been liked to a ‘James Bond villain’ who is using his technical genius to create a new, post-liberal order.
Whatever his personal drive and intelligence, and whatever discipline he learned in the U.S. marines, Greymantle suspects that Vance’s real personal tragedy is that he is as malleable as putty in the hands of these men, ready to be molded as they see fit for their own fell purposes.
Until next time, I remain –
Greymantle
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