Nearly 90 emails and texts between GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance and his former Yale Law School classmate Sofia Nelson were made public by the New York Times on Saturday, offering an unexpected glimpse into the Ohio senator’s transition from a vocal opponent of Donald Trump to his fiery running mate.
The friendly correspondence, spanning from 2014 to 2017 also sheds light on the senator’s friendship with transgender Detroit public defender Nelson. Once close friends, the two suddenly entered a collision course in 2021 when Vance publicly supported an Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
Nelson said she hoped the revelations will provide voters with a clearer understanding of Vance’s character and political journey. Conversely, a spokesman for Vance’s campaign described the release as “unfortunate” but emphasized Vance’s ability to maintain friendships across political lines. The campaign also noted that Vance’s views evolved after he became a father, and that he still cares for Nelson despite their differences.
One significant exchange occurred in October 2014, following the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Nelson proposed the idea of requiring police officers to wear body cameras. Vance’s response also showed sympathy for those upset by the violence, indicating his early openness to progressive ideas.
By December 2015, Vance’s opposition to Trump was also evident. Nelson shared how a Muslim friend felt unsafe wearing a hijab in public due to Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. Vance responded by labeling Trump a “demagogue”.
By 2016, Vance became even more stridently critical of Trump, both publicly and privately. In 2016 and throughout Trump’s campaign, today’s VP nominee compared Trump to Hitler. “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” he wrote privately to an associate on Facebook in 2016.
In June 2016, Vance’s memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” brought another notable moment between the friends. Vance referred to Nelson as a lesbian in the book, and later apologized for any misrepresentation. Nelson’s response was gracious, requesting a signed copy of the book and expressing gratitude for his thoughtfulness.
As the 2016 election approached, Vance’s correspondence once again revealed his concerns about Trump. In September 2016, he thanked Nelson for her insights on implicit bias, which he incorporated into an essay for The New York Times. By October, Vance was calling Trump a “morally reprehensible human being” and a “disaster”.
However, over the ensuing years Vance’s political ideas have evolved, and he is now a vocal critic of any progressive social ideas. Indeed, Trump selected him as his vice-presidential nominee because he is seen as a harsh critic of the Democratic progressive social platform, and as being more outspoken than even Trump, who seems to have designated him as the ticket’s “attack dog”.
