JD Vance’s Policy Views Explained Before Tonight’s VP Debate

Topline

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, will likely be asked about his opinions on abortion and other major policy issues when he faces off against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, amid controversy surrounding his stances since being named as former President Donald Trump’s running mate over the summer.

Key Facts

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Vance’s Economic Views: Tariffs, Taxes And Raising The Minimum Wage

Vance told The New York Times in February that his populist economic vision can be described as “applying as much upward pressure on wages and as much downward pressure on the services that the people use as possible.” The senator said he supports raising the minimum wage as an incentive to get workers back in the workforce—and has co-sponsored legislation to raise it—and other government intervention to boost industries, like providing subsidies or tax credits. He does not support more stringent government regulations on private businesses, however, telling The Times that to boost the economy, “there’s a lot you can do on the regulatory side—make building nuclear facilities easier, make building natural gas pipelines easier, make building housing easier—that doesn’t cost money and in fact brings in money.” Vance also supports tariffs that impose taxes on foreign goods, saying that while that can result in higher prices, “when you are forced to do more with your domestic labor force, you have all of these positive dynamic effects.” He told The Times that while he wouldn’t want to raise taxes on middle class Americans, he isn’t necessarily opposed to raising taxes on the wealthy, but asked, “How much revenue does that actually raise?” Vance is also a big proponent of cryptocurrency, holding bitcoin himself and drafting legislation that would help the cryptocurrency industry.

Vance Wants To Protect Social Security

Vance told The Times he supports Social Security, saying, “I don’t know why people think that you solve many problems by taking a bunch of elderly people and saying, ‘You’re on your own.’” The senator suggested he believes in raising more money for the program through a combination of tariffs and bolstering the American labor force, arguing that if more Americans are working rather than relying on public assistance, it would mean more money can go toward Social Security.

Vance’s Abortion Views And Support For Restrictions

Vance has been widely criticized for his views on abortion. In 2022 he said he “certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally” and opposed the idea that pregnant people could simply cross state lines to obtain an abortion if the state where they reside banned the procedure. He has also compared abortion to slavery, saying in 2021, “While the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society.” The senator was part of a broader group of GOP lawmakers who asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to enforce the Comstock Act in 2023, a long-dormant law from the 19th century that would ban the mailing of anything related to abortion. While the letter specifically asked to stop the mailing of abortion pills, experts have suggested the law could be interpreted more broadly to ban the mailing of abortion-related equipment altogether, which would effectively ban the procedure in practice by ensuring physicians can’t get the necessary materials to perform it. Vance has more recently downplayed his former support for restricting abortion and endorsed Trump’s view of leaving the issue up to the states.

Vance’s Immigration Views: Backing Mass Deportations, Opposing Immigrant Labor

Vance has echoed Trump in calling for mass deportations of immigrants from the U.S. and criticized the Biden administration for allowing an influx of undocumented immigrants. He also helped spread false rumors against Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, and disapproved of the Biden administration extending temporary legal protections to Haitian migrants. The senator has denounced using immigrants for cheaper labor in the U.S., saying business owners should instead increase incentives to lure American workers.

Vance And ‘childless Cat Ladies’

Vance has perhaps garnered the most attention for his attacks on childless Americans, with comments resurfacing from 2021 in which he complained about Democrats being “childless cat ladies” who “want to make the rest of the country miserable too” and don’t have a “direct stake” in the country’s future. While Vance has claimed his comments were a joke, they do reflect his broader views, as the senator has pushed policies that would incentivize people to have children and benefit families. He has suggested there should be a higher tax rate for childless adults and even said in 2021 parents should have more voting power than voters without children, and has touted a policy in Hungary that provides loans to married couples and then forgives those loans if the couple has children. Vance has supported “universal childbirth” policies that would provide healthcare coverage for childbirth, though he has opposed “universal childcare” proposals, which he said in 2021 are a “massive subsidy to the lifestyle preferences of the affluent over the preferences of the middle and working class.” He has also supported expanding child tax credits for low-income families, but has been criticized for missing a Senate vote on the issue. The senator made comments in 2021 suggesting he was against no-fault divorce—though he did not explicitly call for repealing it—claiming that “children suffered” because of more relaxed views around divorce and calling for a return to viewing marriage as “sacred” in order to preserve American families.

Vance Has Close Ties To Project 2025—but Doesn’t Endorse It

Vance has deep ties to the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank spearheading the controversial Project 2025 policy agenda proposing an extreme overhaul of the executive branch should Trump win the election. The senator authored the introduction to Heritage president Kevin Roberts’ forthcoming book—which calls for a “second American Revolution” and says “it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets”—and has long been allied with the organization, with Roberts telling Politico in March Vance is “absolutely going to be one of the leaders—if not the leader—of our movement.” Prior to joining Congress, Vance penned the introduction to a Heritage Foundation report that endorses many of the policies also mentioned in Project 2025, promoting heterosexual nuclear families and decrying abortion and public assistance programs. He has also expressed support for a key pillar of the Project 2025 agenda, which calls for replacing career civil servants with political appointees. Vance has not explicitly endorsed Project 2025, however, particularly as the Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from its proposals. He said in July, prior to becoming Trump’s running mate, that he thinks “there’s some good ideas in” Project 2025’s policy blueprint, but it also has “some things I disagree with.”

Vance Has Consistently Opposed Lgbtq+ Rights

LGBTQ+ advocacy groups criticized Vance’s nomination as Trump’s running mate due to his record on LGBTQ+ rights. As a senator, Vance introduced legislation opposing transgender rights, authoring bills that would classify gender-affirming care for minors as a felony and ban “X” from being used as a neutral gender designation on U.S. passports. Vance also said in 2022 he would vote no on legislation to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, and has voiced support for policies like Florida’s law known as “Don’t Say Gay,” which restrict what schools can say about sexual orientation and gender identity.

Vance’s Foreign Policy Views: Ukraine, Israel And China

Vance is one of the GOP lawmakers who has vocally opposed providing additional aid to Ukraine, and has come under fire for saying in 2022 that he “do[esn’t] really care what happens to” the eastern European country. The senator called at the Republican National Convention for the U.S.’s allies to “share in the burden of securing world peace,” saying there should be “no more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer,” and told The Times in June the U.S. “should be dealing with other countries based on whether they’re good or bad for America’s interests.” He criticized the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy to The Times, saying the U.S. was not sufficiently working to deter China from invading Taiwan because “we’re sending all the damn weapons to Ukraine,” though also acknowledged that handling the situation in Ukraine means “there’s going to have to be some American security assistance over the long term.” Vance also agreed that Russia gaining control of Ukraine is “is not in our interest.” The senator has expressed strong support for Israel in its war against Hamas, saying at a rally on Saturday that his peace plan is “elect Donald Trump” and suggesting he aligns with Trump’s view that “the only way to get to peace is to destroy Hamas and let Israel finish the job.”

How Do Vance’s Views Compare With Tim Walz?

Vance’s views stand in stark contrast to Democratic rival Walz, who has championed progressive policies including abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights and opposing climate changes. Walz is a gun owner but is strongly in favor of gun control measures like universal background checks and banning bump stocks, in contrast to Vance, whom the National Rifle Association described as “a true Second Amendment champion” and has opposed gun control reforms. As governor of Minnesota, Walz has signed bills into law that include free meals for school children, expanded protections for workers, restoring voting rights for the formerly incarcerated, climate change initiatives and legalizing marijuana, among other measures. Like Vance, Walz supports expanding the child tax credit, and he helped enact a nation-leading $1,750 tax credit in Minnesota after a federal tax credit expired. Walz’s administration also eliminated many beneficiaries’ income taxes on Social Security benefits, which Trump has also called for.

Contra

While Vance’s economic philosophy has a strong emphasis on bolstering the American worker, the senator has come under fire from the left for his mixed record on supporting labor unions. Though Vance made headlines for visiting striking United Auto Workers union members on the picket line, the senator opposed the PRO Act that would have strengthened protections for unionized workers and codified the collective bargaining process. He told Politico in March that he opposed the legislation in part because he favors a system where industries negotiate union deals, rather than individual workplaces or companies, and because he “think[s] it’s dumb to hand over a lot of power to a union leadership that is aggressively anti-Republican.”

Surprising Fact

Vance has reached across the aisle for several of his efforts in Congress, working with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, on a bill to improve rail safety standards after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on legislation regarding banking regulations. The vice presidential candidate told Politico in March that his wariness of big corporations often aligns him with progressive Democrats even as he disagrees with them on other issues, saying, “If you look at the people that I’ve worked with most successfully, it’s people who, even though they’re from the left, recognize that something’s pretty fundamentally broken about American society.” Warren, for example, is “at least thinking deeply about what’s going on in the country and why things seem to be going off the rails,” Vance said. In his June interview with The Times, Vance said “Bernie Bros” are the group on the left “whose politics I’m open to,” while criticizing “center-left liberals who are doing very well,” arguing them and their center-right counterparts “have an incredible blind spot about how much their success is built on a system that is not serving people who they should be serving.”

Big Number

34.7%. That’s the average number of U.S. adults who have a favorable view of Vance as of Monday, according to a compilation of polls by FiveThirtyEight, versus 45.7% of Americans who have a negative view of him. Polling suggests the Ohio senator is the least popular non-incumbent vice presidential candidate in at least the past 20 years, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Further Reading

ForbesVance-Walz Debate: Here’s What To Know—Including How To WatchBy Sara Dorn
ForbesJD Vance Vs. ‘Cat Ladies’ And The Childless: VP Candidate’s Views Explained As Wife Defends CommentsBy Alison Durkee
ForbesJD Vance Praised Report By Project 2025 Group Denouncing Abortion And IVF: What To KnowBy Alison Durkee
ForbesProject 2025 Think Tank Leader Delays Book—With JD Vance Foreword—Amid ControversyBy Alison Durkee