James David Vance (born August 2, 1984) is the 50th Vice President of the United States, having risen from a poverty-stricken childhood in Middletown, Ohio, to the second-highest office in the land since 2025. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and earning a law degree from Yale, Vance gained national fame with his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which explored white working-class disaffection and was later adapted into a 2020 film. Initially a critic of Donald Trump, Vance later became a staunch ally, winning a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio in 2022 with Trump's endorsement and then being selected as his running mate for the 2024 election, making him the first Marine Corps veteran to serve as vice president. As a leading figure of the right-wing populist "New Right" movement, Vance holds controversial positions, opposing immigration, abortion, same-sex marriage, and gun control, while also being an outspoken critic of childlessness. His frequent citations of Catholic theology have drawn sharp rebukes from both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV, who accused him of misrepresenting church teachings, even as he strongly supports ICE operations. Vance's personal story includes overcoming a chaotic family life marked by his mother's drug addiction, being raised by his grandparents, and legally changing his name from James Donald Bowman to James David Vance in 2013.