(CNN) — Here is a look at the life of Vice President JD Vance.
Personal
Birth date: August 2, 1984
Birth place: Middletown, Ohio
Birth name: James Donald Bowman
Father: Donald Bowman
Mother: Beverly Aikins, nurse
Marriage: Usha (Chilukuri) Vance (2014-present)
Children: Ewan, Vivek, Mirabel and Alec
Education: Ohio State University, B.A., 2009; Yale Law School, J.D., 2013
Military service: US Marine Corps, 2003–2007, Corporal
Religion: Catholic
Other Facts
Served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
His mother struggled with drug addiction. Vance was raised mainly by his maternal grandparents.
Has had multiple middle and last name changes: James Donald Bowman, James David Hamel and James David Vance. Initially, his middle and last names changed when his mother remarried. When he married, he and his wife changed their last name to Vance.
Yale law professor Amy Chua convinced Vance to write his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”
Was a key voice in the “Never Trump” movement during the 2016 presidential election and has publicly criticized former President Donald Trump. Vance liked tweets in 2016 and 2017 that harshly criticized Trump and his policies, and in a review of Vance’s media appearances by CNN’s KFile, has made anti-Trump comments in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Vance deleted past anti-Trump tweets ahead of his announcement in July 2021 that he would run for the open Ohio Senate seat.
Timeline
2014-2015 – Works as a litigator with Sidley Austin.
2016-2017 – Works at Mithril Capital Management.
June 28, 2016 – “Hillbilly Elegy,” which chronicles Vance’s childhood in a poor Rust Belt town in Ohio, is published.
March 27, 2017 – Joins Revolution LLC as a partner.
2019 – Forms Narya Capital.
2020 – “Hillbilly Elegy” is adapted into a Netflix movie.
July 1, 2021 – Announces he will run for the open Ohio Senate seat.
July 5, 2021 – On Fox News, Vance apologizes for criticizing Trump and asks viewers not to judge him on his past statements.
November 8, 2022 – Elected to the US Senate.
July 15, 2024 – Trump names Vance as his running mate.
November 5, 2024 – Trump and Vance defeat Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election.
January 10, 2025 – Resigns from the US Senate ahead of assuming the vice presidency.
January 20, 2025 – Is sworn in as vice president of the United States.
March 24, 2025 – The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg reports that he was accidentally added to a Signal group chat detailing operational plans and other likely highly classified information about US military strikes on Yemen. National security advisor Mike Waltz started the group thread that included Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. On March 26, 2025, The Atlantic publishes additional text messages from the group chat following the Trump administration and those in the group downplaying the sensitivity of the information.
January 5, 2026 – A man is arrested for vandalizing the Ohio residence of Vance. A Secret Service spokesperson said the man was detained “for causing property damage, including breaking windows on the exterior of a personal residence associated with” Vance. The Vance family was not in Ohio at the time of the incident.
January 20, 2026 – Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, announce they are expecting a baby this summer. The couple already have three children. On July 19, 2026 the couple announces the birth of their fourth child, Alec Neel Vance, marking the first time in more than 150 years that a second lady has given birth while in office.
June 16, 2026 – “Communion,” a book chronicling Vance’s conversion to Catholicism, is published.
The-CNN-Wire
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