JD Vance’s former Yale classmate and friend says emails show political transformation on ‘literally every imaginable issue’
Sofia Nelson, a transgender public defender in Detroit, shared dozens of emails she and Vance had sent between mid-2014 and early 2017. The New York Times first reported on the emails.
At the time, Vance was sharply critical of former President Donald Trump, his now-running mate, called the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “a very shrill old man” and said he hated the police. He was also personally warm with Nelson, expressing concern over the language he had used to describe their identity in his best-selling book.
Now, Nelson told CNN’s Erin Burnett, “I don’t see any of the man that I got to know and care about. It’s really heartbreaking to see him become so callous and divisive.”
Nelson’s comments come as Vance’s political transformation — from someone who had been privately and publicly critical of Trump, to, within years, one of the former president’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail — is explored, a little more than three months from Election Day.
“It’s unfortunate this individual chose to leak decade-old private conversations between friends to the New York Times,” a Vance spokesperson said in a statement. “Sen. Vance values his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum. He has been open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to change after becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Sen. Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best.”
The emails came around the time Vance, then a venture capitalist, emerged as a political commentator and best-selling author.
In 2016, immediately after the publication of the book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance sent Nelson an excerpt — along with a note about how he had described Nelson, among a 16-person friend group at Yale.
“I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you read it you’ll notice reference to an ‘extremely progressive lesbian.’ I’m sure most readers will have no idea who it refers to you, but you will,” he wrote.
“I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I’m really sorry. ... I hope you recognize that the description came from a place of ignorance, when I first started writing years ago. I hope you’re not offended, but if you are, I’m sorry!” he wrote.
Nelson responded: “My identity is complicated and a topic for another day, but progressive lesbian is probably a pretty spot-on assessment for mainstream consumption. If you had written gender queer radical pragmatist nobody would know what you meant!”
Nelson said Vance had sent baked goods after their gender-affirmation surgery, and had expressed his support.
“I knew JD to be a genuine, thoughtful person. He was compassionate to people who were different from him. And that email, I believed at the time, genuinely reflected his views,” Nelson said on “OutFront.”
Nelson, who attended Vance’s wedding, told Burnett they wanted to make clear they still care about the senator, his wife, Usha, and their family. They’ve some hope, they said, “that he’ll snap out of it or something.”
Their friendship fractured, Nelson said, when Vance backed legislation — first in Ohio, then nationally — that would criminalize gender-affirming care for minors. He introduced a bill, called the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” to impose such a federal ban last year.
“That was incredibly hurtful, and I communicated that to him,” Nelson said. “I communicated that I was disappointed, I was hurt and I was scared. Because I remember what it was like to be a kid and think that there was something wrong with me.”
The emails reveal a figure who, at the time, described himself as conservative, but was sharply critical of Trump.
In December 2015, Vance said he wanted Trump to “tone down the racism.”
“He’s such a f—ing disaster,” Vance wrote in October 2016. “He’s just a bad man. A morally reprehensible human being.”
The next month, he wrote that racially offensive views are “certainly disproportionate” among Trump supporters.
Vance also touched on a number of other political and cultural issues in their exchanges. In 2014, Vance told Nelson police officers should be required to wear body cameras.
“I hate the police,” Vance said. “Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a black guy goes through.”
Vance’s positions on many issues have changed drastically since then. He campaigned for Ohio’s Senate seat in 2022 as a populist and Trump ally, and has often publicly discussed how his views of the former president evolved.
“What I see is a chameleon — someone who is able to change their positions and their values depending on what will amass them political power and wealth. And I think that’s really unfortunate, because it reflects a lack of integrity,” Nelson said.
“This isn’t someone who evolved on one or two issues with new information,” they said. “This is someone who has changed their opinion on literally every imaginable issue that affects everyday Americans in this country and changed the way they speak about people.”
After the New York Times reported on the emails between Sofia Nelson and Vance, the exploration of Vance's political transformation from a critic of Trump to a staunch defender becomes even more prominent, less than three months before the election.
Nelson's comments highlight the contrast between Vance's past views and his current stance, expressing disappointment in his shift towards becoming more divisive.
