Sen. J.D. Vance has ties to a slew of far-right academics who believe working women are on drugs and judges should decide who gets to get married, among other extreme opinions, a new analysis shows.
Vance's connections to hardcore anti-feminists could have dire consequences for his running mate former President Donald Trump after President Joe Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take over the Democratic campaign, political theorist Laura K. Field reported for Politico Wednesday.
"Vance, along with his New Right fellow-travelers, is about to introduce voters to a more conceptual take on sexism — one which many women, and indeed many men, might find even more alarming," writes Field.
"Trump lost women by 15 points in 2020. ... If he hoped the vice presidential pick would help with that he may be sadly mistaken."
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Field details Vance's various connections to American New Right “postliberalism” which condemns gender equality as “gender ideology" and promotes what she describes as "overt chauvinism."
Vance (R-OH) is an outspoken admirer of Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen, who argues in his 2018 book "Why Liberalism Failed" that women who would be content tending house have been forced into accepting pay for professional work, writes Field.
The Ohio Republican spoke in 2022 at a New Right academic conference alongside Harvard professor Adrian Vermeule, who believes conservatives should legislate morality by allowing judges to rule against marriage equality and abortion laws for the “Common Good."
Vance gave a speech in 2021 at the Claremont Institute, the “nerve center” of the New Right and home to what Field describes as "some of the most extreme anti-feminists and misogynists in the movement."
Among the extremists is Boise State professor Scott Yenor, who called career-oriented women “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome" and former Claremont fellow Jack Murphy, who said “feminists need rape."
Vance has also engaged directly in New Right ideology.
Vance has suggested abortion is wrong even in cases of rape, opposed same-sex marriage, and argued domestic abuse victims should stay in violent marriages for the sake of the children — a characterization that his own campaign calls "preposterous."
National Conservatism, which Field describes as the big tent where the New Right comes together, regularly invites Vance to deliver speeches.
Vanity Fair writer James Pogue covered NatCon 2 iin 2022 and discussed with Vance his hopes for the end of the "liberal order" under Trump.
“It will mean that my son grows up in a world where his masculinity — his support of his family and his community, his love of his community — is more important than whether it works for f---ing McKinsey," Vance reportedly said.
"Fair enough," Field replied years later. "But I worry about what this means for our daughters, especially in MAGA’s masculinist, zero-sum world."
