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paragraph_text: James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August 2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who has served as the 50th vice president of the United States since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 2023 to 2025. During his tenure as vice president, Vance has also served as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee.
  
  Born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, Vance served in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to the Iraq War as a military journalist. He earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University and a law degree from Yale Law School. After briefly working as a corporate lawyer and Senate aide, Vance became a venture capitalist at Peter Thiel 's Mithril Capital. In 2016, he published Hillbilly Elegy, a bestselling memoir that brought him national attention.
  
  After initially opposing Donald Trump's candidacy in the 2016 election, Vance became a strong Trump supporter during Trump's first presidency. He won the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio, beating Democratic nominee Tim Ryan. Vance served as Ohio's senator from January 2023 to January 2025. In July 2024, Trump selected Vance as his running mate before the Republican National Convention. Trump and Vance won the 2024 United States presidential election, defeating Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
  
  Vance is the first millennial and the third-youngest vice president in U.S. history. He has been characterized as a national conservative and right-wing populist, and describes himself as a member of the postliberal right. His political positions include opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and gun control. Vance is an outspoken critic of childlessness and has acknowledged the influence of Catholic theology on his sociopolitical positions.