Questions continued to mount about the political transformation of Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, after the release of emails from a former friend in which Vance called Trump a “morally reprehensible human being” and said: “I hate the police.”
The messages between Vance and Sofia Nelson, who sent them to the New York Times, were largely dated between 2014 and 2017. In one, Vance sent Nelson a section of Hillbilly Elegy, his bestseller about his Appalachian boyhood.
“Here’s an excerpt from my book. I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you read it you’ll notice reference to ‘an extremely progressive lesbian’,” Vance wrote.
“I recognise now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am really sorry. I hope you’re not offended, but if you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”
Nelson answered: “If you had written gender queer radical pragmatist, nobody would know what you mean.”
Nelson told the Times that after his transition-related surgery, Vance brought baked goods and expressed support.
“The content of the conversation was, ‘I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I support you,’” he explained. “And that meant a lot to me at the time, because I think that was the foundation of our friendship.”
Vance last year introduced a bill, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, to ban minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and other transition-related medical care.
His remarks to Nelson about Trump seem to follow a similar pattern of support for positions he has since come to reject totally, an issue that has dogged Vance since his introduction as Trump’s running mate at the Republican convention this month.
Related: From rising star to potential liability: how JD Vance’s fortunes have turned
He has previously called Trump “America’s Hitler” and “cultural heroin”. And in one of the emails from 2016, Vance told Nelson: “The more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people will suffer. I really believe that.”
He also called Trump “a disaster” and “a bad man”. Later, after Trump beat Hillary Clinton, Vance told Nelson he was “deeply pessimistic”.
Bad polling, awkward speeches and Democrats seizing on Vance’s misogynistic remarks about women without children, whom he called “cat ladies”, have spurred some reports that high-profile Republicans view Trump’s pick as a mistake.
A spokesperson said: “Senator Vance … has been open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to change after becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best.”
But Nelson’s emails showed Vance voicing other opinions starkly at odds with Trumpist views.
Related: From anti-Trump to vice-president nominee: JD Vance in his own words
In 2014, after the killing of Michael Brown, a young Black man from Ferguson, Missouri, Vance wrote: “I hate the police. Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy goes through.”
Vance and Nelson also discussed reparations and the flying of Confederate flags.
“I think you’re my only liberal friend with whom I talk openly about politics on a deeper sense,” Vance wrote.
In 2015, as Trump homed in on the Republican nomination, Vance discussed the real estate magnate and reality TV star’s appeal.
“If you look at the polling, the issue where Trump gets the most support is on the economy,” Vance said. “If the response of the media, and the elites of both right and left, are to just say, ‘Look at those dumb racists supporting Trump,’ then they’re never going to learn the most important lesson of Trump’s candidacy.
“… If he would just tone down the racism, I would literally be his biggest supporter.”
Vance also said he was “outraged at Trump’s rhetoric, and I worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country. And there have always been demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe crazy shit. What seems different to me is that the Republican party offers nothing that’s as attractive as the demagogue.”
By 2021, though, Vance was exploring an entry into Republican politics. The messages reveal that he and Nelson disagreed about transgender issues, particularly relating to children.
Nelson wrote: “I know I can’t change your mind but the political voice you have become seems so far from the man I got to know in law school.”
“I will always love you, but I really do think the left’s cultural progressivism is making it harder for normal people to live their lives,” Vance replied.
