As JD Vance campaigns today in Pennsylvania with a far-right, anti-choice Christian nationalist who was at the Capitol on January 6, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement: 

“After planting himself firmly in an echo chamber of anti-choice extremism, election conspiracies, and hateful rhetoric, JD Vance is now campaigning with Lance Wallnau – a conspiracy theorist whose record includes accusing women of ‘witchcraft,’ calling abortion ‘apocalyptic,’ and being at the Capitol on January 6. This shameless pandering to the far-right is exactly what the American people have come to expect from Vance, and it’s why he’s the least popular VP nominee in modern American history whose disastrous reputation will be yet another drag on the Trump-Vance ticket this November.”

TODAY: JD Vance is campaigning today with far-right conspiracy theorist Lance Wallnau, an anti-choice extremist who called abortion “apocalyptic,” accuses women of “witchcraft,” and celebrated Trump’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Rolling Stone: “Both Wallnau and Vance have described the right to abortion care in apocalyptic terms. … In December, Wallnau expressed frustration with the fact that the overturning of Roe v. Wade had allowed some states to enshrine reproductive rights into state law.”

Wallnau: “It’s a great day in Texas … because Roe v. Wade has been overturned.”

2010: Wallnau claimed that “abortion activity” was “an apocalyptic confirmation that when you remove god from public discourse, when you don’t line up your thinking with kingdom principles, you inevitably hit an iceberg like the titanic and you go down.”

Wallnau: “Wait till you see how they manipulate the ‘woman’s reproductive health’ abortion … issue.”

The Guardian: “Vance to talk at tour hosted by ‘prophet’ who thinks Harris practices witchcraft”

Wallnau is an extreme election denier who was at the Capitol on January 6 and has since tried to whitewash the insurrection with unhinged conspiracy theories. 

NBC News: “After denying Trump’s 2020 election defeat and telling followers that God had a plan to keep him in office, Wallnau joined pro-Trump protestors in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Washington Post: “In December [of 2020], Wallnau said on a prayer call that God would ‘overturn’ the election because Trump’s ‘assignment’ from God has not yet been completed.”

New Republic: “A prominent voice within a Christian nationalist movement that has been elevating Trump, who has met with the former president, and who mobilized his supporters to ‘stop the steal’ on January 6—Lance Wallnau.”

Rolling Stone: “Other evangelical leaders sought to deny reality, blaming the violence of that day on antifa or Black Lives Matter protesters who they falsely claimed had posed as Trump supporters. … Lance Wallnau, a popular evangelical author, speaker and Trump loyalist who attended the January 6th protest, echoed that same theme. ‘This is not your typical evangelical, I’m telling you right now,’ he told Metaxas on his radio program the day after the insurrection, ‘and they’re banging on the hoods of the police and they’re creating a scene, I said, ‘This is the local antifa mob and this is like from the playbook 101.’”

Rolling Stone: “Lance Wallnau, a self-styled ‘prophet’ and one of America’s most strident Christian Nationalists, and Doug Mastriano, the GOP candidate who casts his bid for governor of Pennsylvania as a mission from God, are birds of a feather.  They each fired up the faithful at the Jericho March / ‘Let the Church ROAR!’ event in Washington, D.C., in December 2020, a Christian protest seeking divine intervention to keep Donald Trump in office. And both men were on the ground in Washington a few weeks later on Jan. 6 — each billed as speakers at Stop the Steal’s ‘Wild Protest’ event in the shadow of the Capitol. (The speeches were preempted by the insurrection that overran the Halls of Congress.)”

Wallnau: “Jan. 6 was not an insurrection… It was an election fraud intervention.”

Rolling Stone: “Wallnau claimed the storming of the Capitol was ‘a manipulated TV moment’ and ‘Kabuki theater’ designed to short-circuit the ‘inquiry into a ripped-off election.’”

Mediaite: “Podcaster Lance Wallnau Insists Proud Boys Were at Capitol on January 6 to Help Gather Trash: ‘Their Orders Were to Clean Up the Garbage and Get Out’”

REMINDER: Vance’s anti-choice record includes wanting abortion to be “illegal nationally,” attacking exceptions for rape and incest, comparing abortion to slavery, and more.

CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”

“During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he ‘certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally’ and was ‘sympathetic’ to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion.”

Vance: “I am 100 percent pro-life, and believe that abortion has turned our society into a place where we see children as an inconvenience to be thrown away rather than a blessing to be nurtured. Eliminating abortion is first and foremost about protecting the unborn, but it’s also about making our society more pro-child and pro-family. The historic Dobbs decision puts this new era of society into motion, one that prioritizes family and the sanctity of all life.”

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

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

Vice: “JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery”

NBC News: “Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections”

“Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation led by Democrats to revive the protections of Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court eliminating the nationwide right to abortion.”

Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.

Vance: “I think that what I really think on – so first of all, the Dobbs decision, everybody knows, overruled Roe v. Wade – I think that was the right decision.”

Vance has said he would not have certified the 2020 election, continues to whitewash the violent January 6 insurrection, and won’t commit to accepting this November’s election results.

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”

Spectrum News: “Vance again says he wouldn’t have certified 2020 election if he was vice president”

Jason Calacanis, All-In Podcast: “Would you have certified the [last result of the election]?”

Vance: “Again, I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors and let the country have the debate about what actually matters and what kind of an election that we have.” 

Calacanis: “You wouldn’t have certified, to be clear?”

Vance: “I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors, that’s what I would have done.”

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

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].”

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.”

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

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.”

Wallnau has repeatedly spewed anti-LGBTQ+ hatred. 

Rolling Stone: “In the world according to Wallnau, the MAGA movement is guided by Jesus against devilish Democrats. Wallnau spent years insisting Trump was an instrument of the Lord, even declaring that, ‘Fighting with Trump is fighting with God.’ By contrast… Americans who defend the rights of the LGBTQ+ community are the ‘Trans Taliban.’”

Dallas Morning News: “[Wallnau] told his followers that an ‘anointed cake’ baked by ‘hookers’ turned a gay man straight.”

2018: Wallnau claimed that banning conversion therapy was “anti Christian harassment and persecution.”

2019: Wallnau lamented legislation to expand civil rights protections to the LGBTQ+ community.

Vance’s extreme anti-LGBTQ+ record includes opposing legislation to codify marriage equality.

NBC News: “JD Vance faces criticism from advocates for his ‘cruel’ record on LGBTQ issues”

The 19th: “JD Vance, Trump’s VP pick, has opposed abortion and LGBTQ+ rights”

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

Vance: “‘I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman.”

The Hill: “Vance last year introduced a bill that would make providing gender-affirming care to minors a felony with a 10 to 25-year prison sentence.  

“The bill mirrors state bans on the procedures, but also would block taxpayer funding for it, including banning coverage of gender-affirming care from ObamaCare plans. It banned universities from providing instruction on ‘gender-affirming care.’

“Vance has also cast doubt on the mental health impact of such treatment.”