Billionaire-Backed JD Vance Postures as Working Class Ally in RNC Speech

A former venture capitalist whose Senate campaign and push to become Republican nominee Donald Trump's running mate were propelled by billionaire cash postured as an ally of the U.S. working class during his speech Wednesday night at the GOP's convention, where he accepted the party's vice presidential nomination.

"We're done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We'll commit to the working man," said Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who made millions working in Silicon Valley—including for billionaire Peter Thiel's company Mithril Capital—and later started his own venture capital firm, Narya.

"We need a leader who's not in the pocket of big business, but answers to the working man, union and nonunion alike," said Vance (R-Ohio), an opponent of landmark legislation that would strengthen workers' organizing rights and a leading advocate of an ostensibly pro-labor bill that—as one analyst put it—would empower corporations "to fend off union organizing drives by setting up their own internal labor organizations, AKA company unions."

Vance also cast Trump, a billionaire himself, as a hero to the working class despite his record of gutting labor protections and stacking federal courts and agencies with rabid opponents of organized labor.

"President Trump's vision is so simple and yet so powerful," Vance gushed Wednesday night. "Together, we will protect the wages of American workers."

"He's a former venture capitalist backed by billionaires. He has ties to Big Pharma. He's raked in Big Oil cash. He has an awful record on worker rights. He will sell out workers in a heartbeat."

Following the Republican vice presidential nominee's speech in Milwaukee, the AFL-CIO wrote on social media that "if JD Vance were pro-worker, he would have supported the PRO Act."

"But he didn't—he opposed it, and introduced his own legislation to allow corporate bosses to create their own sham unions," the labor federation added.

By the AFL-CIO's tally, Vance has "voted with working people" 0% of the time as a senator—lower than the Republican average of 3%.

Vance's ascent from bestselling author to senator to vice presidential nominee was aided at every turn by some of the richest people in the United States. Thiel, a co-founder of Paypal and an outright fascist, bankrolled Vance's Senate bid, pouring more than $13 million into a super PAC backing Vance in a crowded field. Vance also raked in campaign cash from Big Oil.

Trump's decision to choose Vance as his 2024 running mate was influenced by a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort from the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and other tech billionaires. The New York Times reported earlier this week that Musk "told Mr. Trump directly that he should choose Mr. Vance as his running mate, describing the Trump-Vance pairing as 'beautiful.'"

"Let's be clear here. J.D. Vance is no champion of working class people," former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote Wednesday. "He's a former venture capitalist backed by billionaires. He has ties to Big Pharma. He's raked in Big Oil cash. He has an awful record on worker rights. He will sell out workers in a heartbeat."