Named as former President Donald Trump’s running mate this week, millennial Ohioan J.D. Vance rose to relative stardom during the pandemic. In 2020, his 2016 best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy was adapted into a film and released on Netflix. Both covered Vance’s rise from Appalachian poverty to Yale Law School. Not long after, Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate. Some say it was because of his inspiring story. Others insist it's because he went from Trump critic to Trump supporter, but kept a pro-worker, pro-middle class emphasis. For example, he supported the United Auto Workers’ strike last year and shared their desire for higher wages and better contracts, but he also said that he would have rejected the 2020 election results.
Yet, no matter how inspired you may (or may not) be by Vance’s story, his policy positions are unfriendly to electric vehicles, and he remains dismissive about the effects of climate change. If Senator Vance becomes Vice President Vance—or perhaps more than that as he emerges as the successor to 78-year-old Trump, who is limited to only one more term if he wins in November—the effects on the EV transition would be devastating for all parties involved.
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