FAIRFIELD, Ohio – Although President Donald Trump is the top Democratic nemesis, some of the party’s most ambitious leaders are increasingly looking past him and at Vice President JD Vance.
In the latest example, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear traveled to Vance’s home county in Ohio, where on Saturday night he said the vice president had abandoned the communities that he wrote about in the memoir that made him famous.
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Beshear said “Hillbilly Elegy,” which detailed Vance's hardscrabble upbringing, had “trafficked in tired stereotypes.”
“His book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ was really hillbilly hate,” the governor said at a Democratic fundraiser in Butler County. “It is poverty tourism, because he ain’t from Appalachia.”
The broadside was not only a sign of Beshear’s own potential presidential aspirations, but a reflection of Vance’s status as the Republican heir apparent to the coalition that twice elected Trump to the White House.
“With every day that passes, we get closer to a day when Donald Trump is no longer president. And we need to prepare for that day,” said Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist. “Right now, JD Vance is a clear front-runner for the 2028 nomination. And so we should begin defining him — not in 2027, not in 2028 — but today.”
Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk brushed off Beshear's criticism as coming from a flawed messenger.
“Every time Andy Beshear attacks the vice president to try to get himself publicity, he ends up humiliating himself in the process, but maybe that’s something he’s into?” she said.
An early foil for Democratic contenders
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California was among the first Democrats to begin focusing on Vance last year. Khanna stopped at the City Club of Cleveland and Yale University, where he and Vance studied law, and gave speeches that attempted to cast Vance as more extreme than Trump.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, another potential presidential contender in 2028, singled out Vance in November while making the argument that the Trump administration did not care about working people.
“At least with Donald Trump, he’s transparent about that,” Shapiro said. “JD Vance is a total phony.”
Some Democrats have coalesced around California Gov. Gavin Newsom as a strong candidate because of his aggressive strategy in going after Republicans.
He coined the nickname “JD ‘Just Dance’ Vance" on social media, and he has mocked the vice president's appearance, saying Vance “grew a beard and lost his spine."
Smith, the strategist who led Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign and still works with the former Biden administration transportation secretary, said every line of criticism of Vance is an audition.
“There's definitely value in taking on Vance to show Democrats, hey, this could be me on the debate stage against him,” said Smith.
Vance often invokes his working-class roots
The vice president was born and raised in Butler County's Middletown, and he rose to prominence with the publication of "Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016. The book earned Vance a reputation as someone who could help explain Trump's appeal in middle America, especially among the working class, rural white voters who helped Trump win the presidency.
Vance carried that reputation to the U.S. Senate, winning election in 2022, and later to the vice presidency. That same background is likely to be central to any future presidential run — and it is precisely what Democrats are now working to undercut.
At Saturday's Democratic fundraiser, the mere mention of Vance's name drew a chorus of boos from the audience.
“I don't think he's got the magic that everybody looks at with Trump,” said Theresa Vacheresse, a retired physician and business owner who attended the event. “I think when Trump is gone, the Democrats might have a chance. My god, I hope so.”
The focus on Vance is not unusual for a vice president widely seen as a potential future nominee, particularly one as young as 41. Republicans went after Kamala Harris early in her tenure under President Joe Biden to undermine her political future.
Jamal Simmons, Harris’ communications director in 2022 and 2023, said vice presidents can be vulnerable.
“The party is built to defend the president more than it is the vice president,” he said. “The vice president's kind of out there on their own, to defend themself, and find friends where they can.”
Republicans, including Vance, frequently tied Harris to some of the Democratic administration’s most politically difficult issues, such as immigration and border security.
“Being vice president is a very mixed blessing," said David Axelrod, who was a top adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama. “You often don't have the assets of the president, but you inherit all of the president's record. The good, the bad, and the ugly.”
Beshear has had success in Trump country
Beshear is the rare Democrat to lead a red state, and he is positioning himself as someone who can reach voters who have tuned out his party.
He said Democrats can “actually go and win back those voters that JD Vance is so condescending to” if they stay focused on Americans' basic needs such as affordable health care and public safety.
“We've gotta start talking to people and not at them," he said. “That’s how I won counties in eastern Kentucky that normally vote for Republicans by large margins — including Breathitt County. That's the county JD Vance pretends to be from. Donald Trump won it by 59 points. I won it by 22 points the year earlier.”
The audience appeared delighted with Beshear's message.
“I think he's first-rate,” said Mark Kaplan, who lives in Butler County. “What he's got is compassion, empathy, charisma and intellect, but he's also down-to-earth.”
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Cappelletti reported from Washington.