Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who has pursued the elimination of tax exemptions for large corporate mergers and the repeal of energy subsidies tied to the Inflation Reduction Act, has been selected by former President Trump to join the Republican ticket as the nominee for vice president.
In an announcement on Truth Social July 15 to coincide with the opening of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump said that Vance’s mixture of working-class roots and experience as a venture capitalist factored into his decision.
“J.D. has had a very successful business career in technology and finance, and now, during the campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond,” Trump said.
Vance has largely aligned with Republicans on key tax issues, such as by calling for repeal of the energy credits in the Inflation Reduction Act that are geared toward alternative energy production and electric vehicle proliferation. In September 2023 he introduced the Drive American Act (S. 2962), which would repeal credits for electric vehicles and create a new tax credit for the purchase of American-made automobiles.
Still, Vance has made overtures to Democrats about ending what he said he believes are tax loopholes for large corporations.
In March Vance joined Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., in cosponsoring the Stop Subsidizing Giant Mergers Act (S. 4011), which would scrap tax exemptions for reorganizations of businesses that earn over $500 million in annual revenue.
“Massive corporate mergers rarely produce their promised benefits but often leave American workers and families behind. It’s past time to close the unfair loopholes that allow these deals to escape tax liability,” Vance said in a release. “This commonsense bipartisan legislation will ensure our nation’s largest corporations are held to a fair standard while preserving protections for small businesses to grow.”
Also, during his Senate campaign in 2022, Vance argued that “asset-light” companies shouldn’t be able to pay a lower effective tax rate than firms involved in manufacturing and energy production. That wasn’t the first time Vance suggested different rates for different types of companies; in 2021 he proposed taxing “anti-American” businesses at a higher rate than other businesses.
Vance has also introduced two tax bills targeting university endowments. The College Endowment Accountability Act (S. 3514), introduced in December 2023, would significantly increase — from 1.4 percent to 35 percent — the excise tax on net investment income of secular colleges and universities with at least $10 billion in assets under management.
And in response to recent pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses, Vance introduced the Encampments or Endowments Act (S. 4295), which would impose a 50 percent excise tax on the endowments of universities that fail to remove encampments on their campuses.
Vance, who served as a U.S. Marine and graduated from Yale Law School, first came to prominence as the author of Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir chronicling the socioeconomic conditions of his childhood in Middletown, Ohio, that was first published in 2016.
At that time, during Trump’s ultimately successful campaign for the presidency, Vance called himself “a never-Trump guy,” wrote an op-ed for The New York Times calling Trump “unfit” for the presidency, and even questioned whether Trump was “America’s Hitler” in texts that were later made public. But since entering the political arena, Vance has refashioned himself as a so-called populist and Trump champion.
The National Association of Manufacturers stopped short of endorsing Vance but welcomed his nomination.
“The NAM board has had the chance to hear his powerful personal story firsthand, learning about the experiences and Appalachian roots that have made him a champion for expanding opportunity for all,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said in a statement. “He recognizes the role manufacturing plays in building strong communities and an exceptional nation, and he is committed to supporting the growth of our industry.”
Controversial Financial Arrangements
As a Senate candidate, Vance’s tax arrangements during his days working in finance came under scrutiny. He was accused of benefiting from the carried interest tax preference, which allows some income of investment managers to be taxed at the lower capital gains rate.
Vance was also accused by his Democratic opponent, Sen. Tim Ryan, of running a “fake” nonprofit. Ohio for Renewal, which Vance set up in 2017 to focus on combating opioid addiction in the state, received less than $225,000 in revenue that year and spent nearly $80,000 in management fees, according to that year’s tax filings. He reportedly shuttered the nonprofit in 2021.
When asked by reporters to comment on Vance’s nomination, President Biden called him “a clone of Trump on the issues.”
Biden’s campaign elaborated on the social media platform X, saying, “Here’s the deal about J.D. Vance. He talks a big game about working people. But now, he and Trump want to raise taxes on middle-class families while pushing more tax cuts for the rich. Well, I don’t intend to let them.”
Similarly, Biden-Harris 2024 Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement that billionaires and corporations will be rooting for Vance. “They know he and Trump will cut their taxes and send prices skyrocketing for everyone else,” she said.