JD Vance on his 'change of heart' for Trump: Politicians shouldn't 'try to hide' from their past stances

DALLAS - "Hillbilly Elegy" author and Ohio U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance walked away as the victor of one of the most intense GOP primaries in the 2022 election cycle. 

Vance, who was trailing in the polls, received a major boost from the endorsement of former President Trump, which shocked spectators as Vance was previously an outspoken critic of the Republican standard-bearer. He went on to clinch the GOP nomination for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat. 

Speaking with Fox News Digital at CPAC Dallas last week, Vance openly acknowledged he had a "change of heart" regarding his views of Trump but dismissed the notion that he had to "thread the needle" in order to win the Republican primary. 

"When you have a change of heart, when you have a change of mind, you should just be honest about it. When the facts change, you should change your mind in this country," Vance said. "Trump was a great president. I think it's great for the people of Ohio. And I think it's actually refreshing for a person who's running for political office to not try to hide or pretend they didn't say something and say, 'Yeah, I didn't like him in 2016. I liked him now because he was a great president.' It's really that simple."

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Vance took a swipe at corporate media he says is "in the tank for the Democratic Party," specifically for failing in his view to challenge Democratic opponent Tim Ryan, who's been campaigning as a moderate despite his voting record in the House of Representatives that's "100%" in-line with President Biden, according to FiveThirtyEight.

"Look, it's not just that he's a solid Nancy Pelosi-style Democrat. It's not just that he always bends the knee to the National Democratic Party. This is a guy, who in the midst of an inflation crisis, is trying to give tax credits for rich people to buy electric vehicles," Vance said. "How does it make any sense for the people of Ohio? It doesn't. It doesn't make sense for Ohio autoworkers, it certainly doesn't make sense for Ohio consumers either." 

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He continued, "But at the end of the day, it's not just that he has bad ideas. Tim Ryan is lazy. He's been in Congress for 20 years. He's got three bills passed, Post Office renamings all of them. It's a joke. We should not be giving a guy a promotion who has been such a failure for the people in his own district."

In response to Vance's comments, Tim Ryan campaign communications director Izzi Levy told Fox News, "San Francisco fraud JD Vance is throwing a temper tantrum because he's being outraised and outcampaigned by Tim Ryan. If Vance had spent more than a few days at a time in Ohio since launching his billionaire-backed vanity campaign, he'd know Tim has fought to expand natural gas production and use in Ohio. While Tim is working to cut taxes for working people and bring down costs, Vance has no plan and is only showing that he doesn't know what he's talking about when he rails against Ohio's fast-growing electric vehicle industry that promises to employ thousands of workers across the state."

On top of Vance's agenda if he's elected to the Senate is addressing the border crisis, which he ties to the influx of fentanyl and sex trafficking in the U.S., combating inflation he believes can be curbed by investing in U.S. energy and emboldening parents regarding their children's education. 

"We cannot go backwards on masking school children. We cannot tell school children that they're evil or oppressive if they have their own skin color, those things – giving parents more power, I think it's going to be a big issue as kids get back to school, and we're going to fight for it," Vance told Fox News Digital. 

Vance also sounded the alarm on the corporate ESG movement, something he calls a "left-wing takeover of the American economy."

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ESG, which stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, has become a growing concern among conservative critics as they accuse the movement of ultimately doing harm to consumers and business owners by prioritizing social justice and the green agenda.

"Tim Ryan says he stands for the working people yet all of his donors are companies that are making it harder for normal Ohioans to express themselves, they're getting censored on social media, they're getting put out of the job because they work in natural gas or oil and gas exploration," Vance said. "The simple fact is that we cannot let the left-wing propagandists take over the American economy. You can't – you can't say that unless you have the right politics. You can't get investment to start a business in this country. That's what the ESG thing is all about, and we have to fight back against it."

Vance says there "absolutely" needs to be a legislative fix to combat ESG, calling for oversight of the Biden administration's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which he believes has only fueled the movement.

When asked whether he would support Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader if Republicans take back the majority in November, Vance refrained from committing. 

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"At the end of the day, I'm gonna support whoever is the most American First person running for Senate Majority Leader," Vance said. "I have no idea who's running, I have no idea what they're doing, but at the end of the day, I expect to be there, and I expect to be voting for the Senate Majority Leader whoever that is."