JD Vance’s journey to becoming Vice President of the United States is anything but ordinary. Raised in Middletown, Ohio, Vance had a turbulent childhood shaped by his mother’s addiction and a broken home. After a near-tragic incident where his mother threatened to crash their car, Vance and his sister were taken in by their grandparents.

Despite early struggles—including dabbling with the wrong crowd—Vance turned his life around. He served in the Marine Corps, including a tour in Iraq, and later graduated from Ohio State and Yale Law School. His 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, recounted his chaotic upbringing and quickly became a bestseller, later adapted into a Netflix film.

Vance went on to work in venture capital before stepping into politics. In 2022, with Donald Trump’s endorsement, he won a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio. By 2024, he became Trump’s running mate and was sworn in as Vice President—the youngest since Nixon.

Vance’s relationship with Trump wasn’t always smooth. He once called Trump a “moral disaster,” but the two eventually found political common ground.

Just weeks before his inauguration, Vance underwent minor sinus surgery, but quickly returned to work. Though his term began with controversy, especially after criticizing Ukraine’s president, Vance’s story remains a powerful example of resilience, reinvention, and ambition against the odds.