CNN
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A Yale Law School friend of Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio has released emails the two previously exchanged over the years, saying the Republican vice presidential nominee is a “chameleon” who has changed his position on “literally every issue imaginable.”
Sophia Nelson, a transgender public defender in Detroit, released dozens of emails she and Vance sent between mid-2014 and early 2017. The emails were first reported by The New York Times.
At the time, Vance was a sharp critic of former President Donald Trump, now his ally, calling the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a “very loud old man” and saying he hated police. He was also personally friendly toward Nelson, expressing concern about the language he used to describe the identity of police in his best-selling book.
Now, Nelson told CNN’s Erin Burnett, “I see no trace of the man I knew and cared about. It’s really painful to see him become so cruel and divisive.”
Nelson’s comments come amid a scrutiny of Vance’s political journey — from a public and private critic of Trump to one of the former president’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail — with just over three months to go until the presidential election.
“It is unfortunate that this individual would leak private conversations with a friend from 10 years ago to The New York Times,” a spokesperson for Vance said in a statement. “Senator Vance values his friendships with people across the political spectrum. He freely acknowledges that becoming a father and starting a family has changed his views from 10 years ago, and he has detailed why he now thinks differently about President Trump. Despite their differences, Senator Vance cares about Sophia and wishes her well-being deeply.”
The email arrived around the time Vance, then a venture capitalist, was emerging as a political commentator and best-selling author.
Shortly after “Hillbilly Elegy” was published in 2016, Vance sent Nelson an excerpt from it, along with a note describing Nelson to a group of 16 friends from Yale University.
“I’m not just sending this to you to brag. If you read it, you’ll notice the reference to ‘extremely progressive lesbians.’ Most readers won’t know who that is, but you will,” he wrote.
“I now realize this may not be an accurate reflection of how you think of yourself, and for that I am truly sorry. … I hope you realize this depiction was born out of ignorance when I first started writing many years ago. I hope you don’t take offense and I’m sorry if you do!” he wrote.
Nelson responded, “My identity is complicated and a topic for another day, but progressive lesbian is probably a pretty accurate assessment for mainstream consumption. If you’d written “genderqueer radical pragmatist,” no one would have understood your intentions!”
Nelson said Vance sent her baked goods to show his support after her gender reassignment surgery.
“I knew JD to be a conscientious and thoughtful person who was considerate of people who were different from him, and I believed at the time that the email was a true reflection of his views,” Nelson said on “Outfront.”
Nelson, who attended Senator Vance’s wedding, told Burnett she wanted to make it clear she still cares about the senator, his wife, Usha, and their family, and that she has hope that “he’ll come to his senses or something,” Nelson said.
Nelson said their friendship fell apart when Vance supported legislation to criminalize gender-affirming care for minors, first in Ohio and then nationally. He introduced legislation last year called the Child Innocence Act that would impose such a federal ban.
“It was very hurtful, and I told him that,” Nelson said, “I told him that I was disappointed, I was hurt, I was scared, because I remember as a child thinking there was something wrong with me.”
The emails show a man who at the time called himself a conservative but was a harsh critic of Trump.
In December 2015, Vance said he wanted Trump to “be less racist.”
“He’s the worst,” Vance wrote in October 2016. “He’s just a bad man. He’s morally reprehensible.”
The following month, he wrote that racist views were “clearly disproportionate” among Trump supporters.
Vance also touched on a number of other political and cultural issues during their correspondence. In 2014, he told Nelson that police officers should be required to wear body cameras.
“I hate the police,” Vance said, “and with all the bad experiences I’ve had over the years, I can’t imagine what a black person goes through.”
Vance’s positions on many issues have shifted significantly since then: He is running for Ohio Senate in 2022 as a populist and Trump ally, and has spoken publicly about how his views on the former president have evolved.
“What I see is a chameleon – someone who can change his positions and his values to amass political power and wealth. I think that reflects a lack of integrity and I think that’s really unfortunate,” Nelson said.
“This isn’t someone who has changed their opinion on one or two issues because of new information,” they say, “this is someone who has changed their opinion and changed the way we talk about people on literally every issue imaginable that affects ordinary Americans in this country.”
