As Trump VP contender J.D. Vance speaks at the Turning Point Action conference in Michigan, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“MAGA loyalist J.D. Vance will do anything to prop up Donald Trump’s extreme agenda, even if it means hurting working families and undermining our democracy. Just like Trump, Vance is already putting the ultra-rich over hardworking Americans, spreading election denialism, and pushing to rip away reproductive freedoms and access to affordable health care. Voters see Vance for the MAGA extremist he truly is, and know that both Vance and Trump will never put the American people first.”

Vance is an extreme election denier who has hedged on accepting this November’s election results, echoed Trump’s baseless lies about the 2020 election, and attempted to whitewash the violent January 6 insurrection.

Vance: “I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would’ve been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion.

“I think it would’ve been extraordinarily disappointing to a whole host of people that I care a lot about if Trump had just taken it [and conceded the 2020 election before January 6].”

Vance: “No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming [Trump for January 6].”

HuffPost: “[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.”

New York Times: “J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat”

ABC News: “JD Vance says he’s wouldn’t have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors”

New York Times: “[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters.”

The Guardian: “Potential Trump running mate JD Vance says he still questions results of 2020 election”

The Hill: “JD Vance says he is ‘skeptical’ Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6”

Politico: “[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging.”

Vance is an anti-choice extremist who supports a national abortion with no exceptions for rape and incest and has endorsed banning abortion before many women even know they’re pregnant.

Manu Raju, CNN: “J.D. Vance, the Ohio GOP senator, says Republicans need to shift their approach on abortion and begin to embrace federal legislation… ‘We can’t give into the idea that the federal Congress has no role in this matter,’ he told us.”

Newsweek: “J.D. Vance Backs ‘National Standard’ for Abortions.”

Washington Post: “Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance argues against need for rape and incest exceptions in abortion laws”

Daily Beast: “J.D. Vance suggested he would support prohibiting abortion even in cases of rape and incest—and dismissed those catalysts as ‘inconvenient.’”

Associated Press: “Vance said that he would vote for the national abortion ban at 15 weeks introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham… He did not explicitly say he supports a rape exception… He said the issue is too complex for him to name all the exceptions he might support on a debate stage.”

Vance: “Ohio has a heartbeat bill, [banning abortion before many women know they’re pregnant] I think that’s a good bill.”

Vice: “JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery”

Vance has railed against Social Security and Medicare and has also criticized the Affordable Care Act that Trump is pushing to “terminate.”

Vance: “[Social Security and Medicare] are the biggest roadblocks to any kind of real fiscal sanity.”

Vance: “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: … reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”

Vance: “We’ve got to, frankly, stop spending so much on welfare benefits and start having a lot more workers who are paying into the system.”

New York Times: Vance claimed the Affordable Care Act “failed to take care of” high healthcare costs.

Vance opposes commonsense gun safety reforms like expanded background checks and red flag laws while cozying up to the NRA.

Vance: ‘The background check system is not the problem… the idea that expanded background checks is going to solve that problem is unfortunately not true.”

Vance: “None of these [commonsense gun safety reforms] would improve the gun violence problem in this country. All of them satisfy the urge to ‘do something’ without actually doing anything useful, at great cost to the rights of people who follow the law. Let’s take just one example, ‘red flag’ laws.”

2022: Vance was endorsed by the NRA.

Vance has defended Trump’s racist immigration rhetoric, and he caved to Trump’s demands by tanking bipartisan legislation to improve our immigration system and border security.

The Hill: “Vance slams ‘poisoning our blood’ comparisons between Trump comments, Nazis”

“‘[Trump] said illegal immigrants were poisoning the blood of this country, which is objectively and obviously true’… Vance said.

“The Ohio Republican, who has endorsed Trump’s campaign, also criticized the framing of questions from reporters who likened the remarks to those by Hitler around World War II, calling it ‘absurd.’”

J.D. Vance: “[The bipartisan border security bill] does nothing to secure the border.” 

Vance supports Trump’s plan to reward Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

NBC News: “[Vance] says Ukraine should cede land and cut a deal with Putin to end the war”

“Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on Monday dismissed fears of Russia’s military capabilities under President Vladimir Putin and suggested Ukraine should give up some of its land to end the war. … Vance also reiterated that he believes ‘there will be negotiation’ and Ukraine should be willing to give up at least some of its territory to end the war, which began in February 2022. ‘It ends the way nearly every single war has ever ended: when people negotiate and each side gives up something that it doesn’t want to give up,’ Vance said.  ‘No one can explain to me how this ends without some territorial concessions relative to the 1991 boundaries,’ he added.”

Mediaite: “J.D. Vance Calls Depriving Ukraine of Aid His Second Biggest Priority in Senate”

Vance’s extreme record includes opposing legislation to codify marriage equality.

Ohio Capital Journal: “Vance would vote against codifying right to marriage for same-sex couples”

Vance has railed against President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that is investing billions to update our nation’s roads and bridges, renewing our transportation networks, and ensuring every American has clean drinking water and access to high-speed internet. 

Vance: “I think [the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] could actually make our infrastructure problems worse, not better. … I certainly think that the infrastructure bill was a huge, huge mistake.”