In response to new reporting on a top aide for JD Vance previously working for a group with deep ties to far-right extremist groups, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Just like Donald Trump, JD Vance and his team won’t stop surrounding themselves with ‘far-right’ extremists who want to take America backward, ripping away women’s basic rights and attacking access to everything from contraception to divorce. It’s no wonder Vance is the least popular VP pick in modern American history with an inner circle of far-right creeps and an extreme Project 2025 agenda to match.”

NEW: A top aide for JD Vance previously worked for a group with deep ties to far-right extremist groups.

The Guardian: “Revealed: top Vance aide worked for far-right consultancy with extremist links”

“A senior aide to Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, once worked for a far-right political consultancy that touts its capacity for ‘clandestine actions’ and has links to a network of extremist groups and thinktanks, the Guardian can reveal.

“Parker Magid was recently appointed as Vance’s press secretary and his employment history links Vance and his circle to elements of the extremist right far outside the mainstream of American politics.

“Vance’s staffer links him to Beck & Stone (B&S) and its subsidiary political consultancy Knight Takes Rook (KTR). The brand consultancy with a business address in New York is close to Vance allies including the far-right Claremont Institute, the serial Arizona political candidate Blake Masters and the ‘counter-revolutionary’ magazine IM–1776…

“Beck, Beck & Stone’s co-founder, is closely involved with the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), a secretive invitation- and men-only fraternal lodge that has been the subject of extensive previous reporting in the Guardian. Beth Daviess, a researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who has published research on SACR, said the politics represented by the group are ‘much more extreme than mainstream conservatism.’ She explained there were two elements of that extremism: ‘their opinions on gender and the role women should have in society’ and ‘their views on whether government should be democratic at all.’

“The link is just one of a series of connections between Vance and the so-called ‘new right,’ an anti-democratic movement that attacks feminism, racial equality and immigrants while centering the grievances of white men.”

Beth Daviess: “The SACR admission criteria highlight the importance of ‘Christian sexual ethics,’ and ‘Natural Law,’ but provide no specifics. Yenor’s writing nonetheless provides some insights: in a blog post titled ‘A High Road for Protestant Sexual Ethics,’ Yenor condemns the availability of birth control and divorce as having the potential to weaken the commitment of a married couple.”

Vance is deeply connected with other extremists, including the architects of Project 2025, Steven Bannon, and Tucker Carlson.

New Republic: “Vance has deep ties to the Heritage Foundation, and in particular to Kevin Roberts, who has been president of the right-wing think tank since 2021 and is the architect of Project 2025. Vance has praised Roberts for helping to turn the organization ‘into the de facto institutional home of Trumpism’ and has endorsed elements of Project 2025. Vance is also the author of the foreword to Roberts’s upcoming book.”

Axios: “J.D. Vance wrote foreword of upcoming book from Project 2025 architect”

New Republic: “Project 2025 Leader Is Overjoyed by Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick”

Nick Corasaniti, New York Times: “[Roberts] reacted to the news [of Vance’s VP selection] ‘with a broad smile on my face’ and said that ‘privately, we were really rooting for him.’”

Vox: “Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the driving force behind Project 2025, told Ward that ‘[Vance] is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.’”

Politico: “Vance’s inner circle already bears the imprint of Trump’s influence, with a handful of advisers and staffers who have one foot in Vance’s camp and one foot in Trump world…

“​​The leader of the organization behind the now-infamous Project 2025, [Kevin] Roberts is a long-time Vance ally in Washington, having called him ‘one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.’ The two men have appeared together at public events and co-authored op-eds about foreign policy, and Vance even wrote the foreword to Roberts’ forthcoming book…

“[Project 2025 architect Russell Vought] told POLITICO Magazine that he is in ‘regular contact’ with Vance’s Hill office and that ‘we probably have one of the closest relationships with [Vance’s] office that we do with any Hill office.’ …

“The former Fox News superstar [Tucker Carlson] used his prime-time show to promote Vance’s Senate candidacy in 2022 and has remained one of his most ardent public supporters. Vance is a regular guest on Carlson’s new platform… and Carlson reportedly personally lobbied Trump to pick Vance as his vice presidential candidate in the days leading up to the Republican National Convention…

“The former Trump strategist [Steve Bannon] is another of Vance’s key allies in the conservative media ecosphere, frequently hosting Vance on his show, War Room, and promoting him to his sizable social media following.”