National News

How J.D. Vance’s Catholic Faith Influences His Politics

July 16, 2024
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Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Republican Vice Presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) appear on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Delegates, politicians, and the Republican faithful are in Milwaukee for the annual convention, concluding with former President Donald Trump accepting his party’s presidential nomination. The RNC takes place from July 15-18. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — With former President Donald Trump choosing J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential running mate and assuming President Joe Biden stays in the race, one thing is certain about the next iteration of the executive branch: A Catholic will be first or second in command.

If Trump is elected in November, Vance, baptized and received into the Catholic Church in 2019, will become the nation’s second Catholic vice president after Biden, who became the first when he served under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.

Trump announced on July 15 that he chose Vance, a first-term Ohio Senator, as his vice-presidential running mate, writing on Truth Social that he is “the person best suited” to assume the role. On the same day, as expected, Trump received enough delegate votes to officially become the Republican nominee.

“After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump wrote.

A former Marine, Vance grew up in Jackson, Kentucky, and Middletown, Ohio, and first rose to prominence in 2016 through his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy, in which he described a childhood of poverty and abuse. In a 2019 interview with The American Conservative, Vance revealed that he grew up Christian but said that many of the people he looked up to most were Catholic, which was a key factor in his decision to join the Catholic Church as an adult.

Like Biden, Vance, while Catholic, doesn’t always align with Church teaching on prominent issues. For example, while Vance agrees with the Church in his pro-life abortion stance, he strays from the Church regarding immigration and the environment. 

Vance supports the completion of Trump’s border wall, decries the number of illegal immigrants who have entered the country in recent years, and has previously said he “opposes every attempt to grant amnesty” to illegal immigrants. On environmental issues, Vance has downplayed the threat of climate change.

Before Biden in 2009, there were six other Catholic vice-presidential candidates: Republican William Miller in 1964, Democrat Ed Muskie in 1968, Democrat Thomas Eagleton in 1972, Democrat Sargent Shriver in 1972, Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and Democrat Tim Kaine in 2016.