Tag: Senate

A Win for J.D. Vance Would Be a Boon for the U.S. Senate

J.D. Vance has had great success as an attorney, venture capitalist and author.

The modern-day Renaissance man may soon be adding another notch to his career belt, that of U.S. Senator.

The son of Donald Bowman and Bev Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio, after the family moved there from Jackson, Kentucky.

His parents divorced early on, so he and his sister went to live with their grandparents James and Bonnie Vance. As a tribute to them, J.D. later chose to take on the surname of Vance.

He attended Middletown High School, and after graduating he enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he served in the Iraq War. He went on to attend Ohio State University and later earned his Yale law degree.

He took on the corporate law firm world, and then moved to San Francisco to work in the technology industry as a partner with Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm, Mithril Capital.

He experienced an additional game changer in 2016, when Harper published his book “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.” The book enjoyed phenomenal success and remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for months.

“Hillbilly Elegy” tells the story of the strengths and struggles of one of America’s truly forgotten segments, a group that is largely invisible to our nation’s leaders, media outlets and business communities. It is the subculture of impoverished whites living in rural America.

As the title indicates, the book sheds light on the culture of Appalachia, those with whom J.D.’s family shares its rural Kentucky roots before additional ones were established in the Ohio Rust Belt.

The book would take flight in a different manner in 2017. Iconic director-actor Ron Howard signed on to direct a film version of “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was released by Netflix in 2020. This would also be the year that J.D. would become a CNN contributor.

His upbringing and life experiences informed his positions on national policies in a dynamic way, which helped to prepare him for his campaign run as well as his likely senate post. He is expected to win the Ohio seat.

As would be expected, MSNBC hosts have gone on the attack against the Republican candidate.

A recent MSNBC panel used the final debate between J.D. and Dem candidate Tim Ryan to target J.D. while simultaneously slamming “white Republican men.”

Abortion was the overriding theme of the panel discussion, though, which is consistent with the hierarchy of issues being pushed by Democrats and their allies in the lead-up to the midterms.

Host Joy Reid, along with Democratic strategist and frequent guest Kurt Bardella, went on the attack against J.D. Then Bardella flatly stated that J.D. and other Republicans do not understand how “a baby is actually made.”

“I mean the one thing we’ve seen during the abortion debate that’s unfolding is that most of these White Republican men have no idea how a baby is actually made,” Bardella stated.

Reid agreed, saying, “Do they even know how to make a baby? I don’t think they do, and he [J.D.] has kids!”

Just for the record, J.D. has been married to former law school classmate Usha Chilukuri Vance for eight years and the couple has three children.

The negative focus on abortion and white GOP males by the Democrats and liberal media appears to be the result of an increase in J.D.’s voter support, as indicated in a recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll.

The poll shows a 47% to 45% lead for J.D. This suggests that there has been a significant swing in recent weeks from Ryan’s one-point advantage over J.D. to J.D.’s current 3 point advantage.

Although Ryan has attempted to portray himself as a pragmatic moderate, many voters have taken note of Ryan’s voting record in Congress, where he has consistently voted in lockstep with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Voters may also recall that during his unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign he sounded unmistakably woke.

In contrast, J.D.’s relatability appeals to average everyday folks because he really has lived their same pain. In the Ohio steel town home of his youth, he felt the aftereffects of an ever shrinking economy.

Additionally, like so many families affected by addictions of various sorts, his mother tragically became addicted to heroin. Grandmother “Mamaw” came to his rescue, bringing stability to his life and teaching him to accept responsibility for his actions.

Mamaw told him that he lived in the “best and greatest country on earth,” which in J.D.’s words “gave meaning to my childhood.”

J.D.’s writings and life example stand as a testament to the axiom that the virtues of humility and fortitude are forged in the triumph over adversity.

“One of the things Hillbilly Elegy is about is a struggle to find stability in your own life, but also to become a good person when you didn’t have an easy upbringing,” J.D. shared. “That means being a good husband and a good father, and being capable enough to provide for your family.”

A search for the source of goodness has led him on a faith journey. He was raised as an evangelical Protestant but ended up unattached to any particular religious denomination. Then in 2016, he began thinking more deeply about his faith and became a Catholic Christian in 2019.

“When I looked at the people who meant the most to me, they were Catholic. My uncle by marriage is a Catholic,” he explained.

As a Confirmation patron name, he chose a figure that is beloved by Christians, philosophers and academics alike, St. Augustine, who authored a book that J.D., like so many others, finds inspirational, “Confessions.”

Sure would be nice if the pursuit of virtue that J.D. exhibits could rub off on his future colleagues in D.C.

Why Judge Moore’s Supporters Remain Loyal

judge-roy-moore

Despite the avalanche of recent coverage by the mainstream media over allegations against Judge Roy Moore, Alabama voters are not buying into reports that center on his purported distant past.

An ABC affiliate television station in Birmingham sent a reporter to the town of Columbiana seeking to elicit voter reaction to the Washington Post story, which claimed that the Republican nominee to the U.S. Senate had, in excess of 34 years ago, engaged in inappropriate conduct with young women. Judge Moore has categorically denied the allegations.

Television reporter Lauren Walsh was unable to find a single local resident who believed the Post report.

“Out of all the voters we spoke with…, we didn’t find one voter who believed the Washington Post report about Moore,” Walsh stated.

Meanwhile CNN, an outlet that has set itself up as a 24/7 broadcaster of negative news about the Trump administration, conducted its own research on the attitudes of Judge Moore’s supporters.

Perhaps the cable outlet was expecting similar kinds of responses to those of Republican establishment figures, including John McCain, Bob Corker, and Mitt Romney, in which the trio suggested that Judge Moore immediately exit the race.

But that did not happen. Instead CNN was forced to print the results of its inquiry of approximately a dozen Alabamians who diminished or outright dismissed the Post’s story.

One local pastor, Mike Allison, echoed a phrase about the mainstream media that has been reverberating in segments of the population for over a year.

“I don’t even believe the allegations,” Allison told CNN. “There’s lots of fake news going around these days.”

Allison additionally indicated that he will support Judge Moore “more than ever.”

Republican Tim Huddleston acknowledged that, if the claims were true, a candidate would be required to step aside. But he is dubious about the timing of this story.

“The problem you have is all of a sudden — whether you’re Democrat or Republican — you can’t come in 30 days before the election and say here are some unsubstantiated allegations,” Huddleston said.

At his first public appearance following the Post story, Judge Moore received a standing ovation from a crowd of supporters at an event at a library outside Birmingham.

It is predictable and wholly rational for Judge Moore’s backers to doubt the veracity of the Post story. The public has routinely witnessed the ugly pattern of last minute hit pieces, which arrive in the form of an “October Surprise.”

Judge Moore was expected by most to win in the very red state of Alabama, and the polls had been indicating he enjoyed a sizable double-digit lead.

Given the fact that every Senate seat is significant to the delicate balance of power in the upper chamber, if a Judge Moore loss could somehow be made to materialize, the Democrats would be better positioned to make headway in their efforts to “resist” the Trump agenda.

Decades-old allegations that are difficult to prove or disprove, is precisely why, when it comes to the law, that statutes of limitations are imposed as an integral part of due process.

The timing of this particular piece has the smell of classic last minute political opposition research. The media outlet that broke the story happens to be the Jeff Bezos-owned Post, which during the first year of the Trump presidency morphed into the print version of CNN and lost virtually all credibility with the Republican base, the very same voters who support Judge Moore.

The Post, which during the last presidential election had a platoon of reporters whose assignment was to do nothing other than dig up dirt on then-candidate Trump, has already given its endorsement to Judge Moore’s Democrat opponent.

One of Judge Moore’s accusers, Deborah Wesson Gibson, is a supporter of his opponent, just as is the Post. The newspaper failed to disclose this fact, as well as another important piece of information, which is that Gibson worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and as a sign language interpreter for Vice President Joe Biden. A photo of Gibson standing next to Biden was posted on her Facebook page and is displayed on her business webpage as well.

Much to the frustration of the mainstream media, Democratic Party, and certain members of the Republican establishment, the first poll issued after the Post story had circulated indicated that the race was tied.

Now an Alabama poll conducted two days after the Post piece hit has Judge Moore holding onto his double-digit lead, only dropping 0.2 percent since the allegations were reported.‬

Judge Moore has said that he will not leave the race but instead intends to fight back against the Post story.

Alabamians have little faith in the mainstream media, particularly the Post. On the other hand, Judge Moore is known statewide as an individual who after successfully running for office served as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

As time passes, it is a distinct possibility that even more Alabama voters will support Judge Moore rather than a Democratic candidate, making the GOP Senate nominee still the favorite to win.