One of the catchphrases of this election came from a moment three years ago when Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance mocked Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats he accused of being anti-family and called them “childless cat ladies.”
The Harris campaign and her Democratic allies seized on the comments to brand the Trump-Vance ticket as “weird,” forcing the former president and his vice presidential nominee to better explain his views. Vance has long expressed his concern for falling birth rates, saying the U.S. will not be able to continue as a nation if current trends hold.
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Vance has not apologized and says he was taken out of context, arguing he did not criticize people for not having kids, but for “being anti-child.”
Here's a review of what Vance has said.
What are Vance’s family views?
Even before Vance got into politics, he has been clear about his concerns regarding birth rates.
In a 2021 speech at the conservative nonprofit Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Virginia, he floated an idea to allow parents to cast ballots on behalf of their children. He has since said that was a “thought experiment” and not a policy proposal and said it would be “ridiculous” to change the voting system.
On abortion, Vance says he is “pro-life” and has previously stated he would support a federal bill to prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, believing in exceptions. He now defends Trump’s approach to leave the decision up to the states.
Vance has also said he would support expanding the child tax credit, currently at $2,000, to $5,000. Democrats attacked him recently for skipping a recent vote in the Senate that would have expanded the child tax credit. However, he said the effort was a “show vote,” when bills are designed to fail but allow parties to highlight issues before voters. In this case, Democrats were looking to counter assertions from Vance that their party is “anti-family.”
He criticized efforts by the Biden administration to control rising costs in childcare centers, arguing that by doing so the government encourages parents to go back into the workforce and neglects those who prefer to care for their children at home.
Vance praises Hungary as an example
In interviews, Vance has praised policies enacted by Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to encourage people to have more children and suggested the United States copy the Hungarian model.
Orbán’s government has portrayed itself as a champion of family values and offered generous subsidies and tax discounts for families that have children. Women, for example, who have four or more children are exempt from paying income tax for life. Married couples expecting to start a family can apply for low-interest loans underwritten by the state for purchasing a home, some of which do not need to be repaid if a woman bears more than three children.
However, as Hungary’s economy has sunk into a deep downturn, many of these family benefits have been cut or reduced. Additionally, some experts say the pro-family measures benefit only the middle and upper classes while Hungary’s universal family cash subsidy, available to all families regardless of income, has remained at the same low level, roughly $35 per child per month, for decades, even as Hungary has long struggled with the highest inflation in Europe.
In 2022, Orbán sparked international outrage when he said he did not want Europe to become a “mixed race” society. He is firmly against immigration, saying it is not an answer to his country’s aging population.
Vance's own family
Vance likes to refer to his personal struggles when describing policies he said would help make parenting easier for other families.
Vance has described a chaotic childhood being raised by his grandparents in southwestern Ohio and a mother who battled drug abuse. He converted to Catholicism as an adult.
The senator and his wife, Usha Vance, have two boys ages 4 and 7 and a 2-year-old girl. Usha Vance, a trial attorney, left the law firm where she worked shortly after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate. Usha has noted she helped her husband with his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
Defending Vance
The negative attention Vance has received over some of his old remarks has meant that Trump has been having to explain and defend him.
“My interpretation is that he’s strongly family-oriented. But that doesn’t mean that if you don’t have a family, there’s something wrong with that," he said at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago.
Proponents of pro-natal and pro-marriage measures have applauded Vance for giving these ideas to a wider audience and standing by them.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who has known Vance since his days as an author and has gubernatorial aspirations, said he would suggest the senator “lighten up the sarcasm just a little bit” while giving him credit for starting a discussion on an important issue.
“We have to point to the fact that this is all brand new. We don’t have American politicians talking about this, and God bless him for raising the issue because we need to have that conversation,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, Justin Spike in Budapest and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.