YOUNGSTOWN. He used to call Donald Trump “Hitler of America”.
Now JD Vance is the Republicans’ hope in Ohio’s languishing industrial cities – thanks to the president’s support.
– He is the most dangerous candidate, says Josh McLaurin, 34, about his former roommate.
The campaign was idling. But late in the Republican battle for who will be the Senate candidate in Ohio came the lifeline JD Vance had been waiting for: Public support from Donald Trump.
The message lifted the 37-year-old “Hillbilly Elegy” author all the way to victory.
– Fake news wanted to write that this campaign meant the end of Donald Trump’s “America first” agenda. Ladies and gentlemen – this is not the end of America’s first agenda !, Vance stated in his victory speech last week.
The Ohio result is seen as a first test of Trump’s appeal ahead of the US midterm elections in November. More Republicans could try to follow in Vance’s footsteps. Along one of the main streets in the industrial city of Youngstown, Carl Crawford, 38, is tearing up asphalt to install 5G networks. For him, Trump’s thumbs up was downright crucial.
– It made a huge difference. I’m a Trump guy. Whoever he backs will get my vote, so it was an easy choice, says Carl.
Steel ruins and abuse
Once upon a time, this city flourished. First coal mines, and later steel mills, attracted large numbers of workers to the northeastern United States, around the Appalachian Mountains. But economic changes caused several of the factories to collapse in the 1970s. Something that more than halved the population – from 170,000 inhabitants during the heyday, to today’s 60,000 – an event that inspired Bruce Springsteen to record the song Youngstown.
There are still steel ruins, where nature has taken over the brick walls. Poverty and opioid abuse have spread. A dormant city.
– I think it has a lot to do with the jobs. People are chasing jobs. And when I look around here, there is not much to choose from, at least not well-paid jobs. No new companies come here and build, says Carl.
– It’s quite sluggish. They should clean up among abandoned houses and the industrial areas. You have to build it up, get the jobs here again – and that’s what Trump is all about, he adds.
It was cities like Youngstown, and why the Trump spirit gained a foothold here among the working class, that JD Vance wrote about in his book.
“I grew up poor, in the rust belt, in an Ohio steel city that bleeds jobs and hope, for as long as I can remember.”
This is how Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” begins, which later became a Netflix movie.
Became a new voice
The book is seen as an empathetic portrait of the white underclass in the United States. About the betrayal, the industrial jobs that disappeared, the American dream that went out. Re-nailed shop windows, and widespread heroin addiction.
The book turned Vance into a coveted conservative voice after the 2016 presidential election. He became a kind of unofficial spokesman who could explain why working class dissatisfaction led to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
“We can not trust the evening news. We can not trust politicians. Our universities, which are the gateway to a better life, are rigged against us. We can not get a job. You can not believe these things and participate meaningfully in society ”.
For Vance, life took a different turn. After growing up in Ohio, marked by domestic violence, he joined the Marine Corps. Served in Iraq. Made a law degree at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, Yale.
He then became a venture capitalist in San Francisco, where he worked with billionaire and technology mogul Peter Thiel, whose money later became a welcome jingle in the campaign coffers.
And now he’s betting on becoming the Republican man in Ohio.
Called Trump a “cynical asshole”
Just days after Trump publicly supported Vance, his former friend and roommate at Yale, Josh McLaurin, 34, posted one of their old Facebook conversations on Twitter.
The messages immediately went viral. In the chat from 2016, Vance called Trump an equally “cynical asshole as Nixon” and “America’s Hitler”. He also wrote that the Republicans’ real electorate is undereducated and poor.
Trump’s rise, he said, was the fruit of the party’s collective neglect, and Republicans “have only themselves to blame.”
“We are, whether we like it or not, the party of white people with lower incomes and lower education, and I have long said that we must offer those people SOMETHING,” Vance wrote to McLaurin.
– When I saw that Trump supported him, and then how JD wholeheartedly embraced that support – then it crossed a line. I could not keep quiet anymore, says Josh McLaurin to Aftonbladet.
– It was the last dot over the i for his complete reversal. The total hypocrisy, where he previously said he is afraid of where the country is headed under Trump, and then still sells his last dignity. This is bigger than Ohio – it says something about where our policies are right now.
Former friend: “Takes a shortcut to power”
JD Vance’s previous Trump hatred is well documented. But today, his conservative agenda is a reflection of the former president’s: he portrays himself as an outsider, against the elite, is opposed to abortion, wants to stop Big tech and the influx of migrants at the southern border.
McLaurin says it was obvious, right from the start, when they lived together that Vance was conservative. He himself was a liberal, but still they got along well. He remembers Vance as caring and appreciated him as an intellectual sparring partner in political discussions.
– I always had respect for the way he approached questions. His thing was that he never wanted to be told by anyone what he would think and think, a very independent thinker, says Josh.
But over time, they slipped apart. The messages on Facebook 2016 were the last time they skewed to each other. After Trump won the election, Vance stopped responding. Today, Josh McLaurin is a Democratic state politician in Georgia and they stand longer
apart than ever. The big question that Josh is grappling with today is: Does Vance believe in the slogans, or is he just using the Trump effect to win?
– I think he is trying to take a shortcut to power, by tying himself to Trump. If he had had more courage, he could have been a pioneering conservative leader, who led the party to something better. He’s really smart, McLaurin explains.
– But if Vance himself answers, I think he would say “that is the price you have to pay in politics”.
For Josh McLaurin, that mindset is the greatest threat to US democracy.
– That’s why he’s the most dangerous candidate. Because he is more capable than others in the field, but cynically uses the attention of voters to achieve his goals and expand his power.
“Would say anything for the money”
At a slot machine in a kiosk in Youngstown, Steve Brown, 62, throws down 25-cents, hoping to win a grand slam. He digs into his jeans pocket to fish for another handful of coins. “Race turner” JD Vance he does not give a penny for.
– I think he would say anything to get campaign money. So at least he is not someone I would vote for, says Steve, and continues to methodically dot the coin toss.
However, he realizes that Trump still has a lot of influence. A kingmaker, where Republican candidates shape themselves after him, because they know he can attract the grassroots votes out in the country.
– Because of the farmers, white hillbilly boys. He gathered them, and promised them much. Weapons, the border, all that shit, says Steve.
– Vance is simply following in Trump’s footsteps. With Vance as the Republican nominee, and Democrat Tim Ryan – who is also trying to attract the working class – in the other ring corner, Ohio will be a battle the country will keep an eye on.
Although Tim Ryan himself comes from the same county as Youngstown, it is predicted to be an even battle. And it has already become a bitter battle, where Ryan tried to portray Vance as a celebrity who tried to dig gold in Silicon Valley in attack ads.
Carl Crawford, who is digging down 5G networks in Youngstown, does not want to talk about the white underclass that Vance is alleged to appeal to. It is a sensitive subject here, he says. He lowers his sunglasses. Is Vance a writer too ?, he asks. He has not heard of the book Hillbilly Elegy. But on the conservative TV channel Fox, Vance is often praised.
The Trump backing will continue to be a power factor, he believes. At the same time, he is considering whether it can be fuel for the opposing side: They can use the hatred against Trump to win votes.
That Vance, the Ohio son, once called Trump America’s Hitler then? Plays zero role, says Carl.
– Politicians turn their backs on the wind all the time. Of course he jumps on the “Trump train” to power, because it works.