[link removed] [[link removed]] JUNE 12, 2025
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Trump administration profile: J.D. Vance
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President Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance as his 2024 running mate cemented the political rise of a first-term senator and venture capitalist who captivated Rust Belt voters, Silicon Valley billionaires and the MAGA community.
Vance was sworn in as the 50th vice president of the United States on Jan. 20, becoming the first millennial and Marine Corps veteran to hold the office. He was the least politically experienced vice president in modern history, having served just over two years in the Senate before his election.
Vance, 40, rose to national prominence in 2016 with “Hillbilly Elegy,” his memoir about growing up in Appalachian poverty that became a bestseller and cultural flashpoint. Once a fierce Trump critic — he publicly referred to Trump as “ cultural heroin [[link removed]] ” and privately as “ America’s Hitler [[link removed]] ” — Vance reversed course ahead of his 2022 Senate run in Ohio, rebranding himself as a MAGA loyalist.
Trump’s endorsement helped Vance narrowly win [[link removed](D)-,Republican%20primary%20election,-Republican%20primary%20for] the Republican primary, and he went on to defeat Democrat Tim Ryan in the general election. Ryan raised roughly four times [[link removed]] as much in direct contributions, but outside spending favored Vance, though not as dramatically.
While critics accuse him [[link removed]] of opportunism, Vance has become one of Trump’s most articulate defenders, praised by allies [[link removed]] for giving ideological structure to the president’s grievances and promises. Robby Brod breaks down the numbers.
Follow the money
* Vance’s political rise was fueled by an elite donor class, particularly tech billionaires who saw in him a rare combination of Ivy League credentials and populist appeal. His single biggest backer was PayPal co-founder and Palantir Technologies chairman Peter Thiel, who contributed over $15 million [[link removed]] to Protect Ohio Values PAC, which backed Vance in 2022. Thiel’s contributions accounted for about 75 percent of the money raised by the committee during that election cycle. Their relationship began when Vance attended a Thiel lecture at Yale Law School, a moment Vance later called “ the most significant [[link removed]] ” of his time there. Thiel hired Vance at his VC firm, helped fund Vance’s own startup in Ohio and introduced [[link removed]] Vance to Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2021.
* Other major donors to Protect Ohio Values PAC in 2022 included [[link removed]] : philanthropist Walter Buckley Jr. ($1 million), venture capitalist David Sacks ($900,000), Uline co-founder Elizabeth Uihlein ($250,000), gas industry executive Karen Wright ($250,000), energy trading executive John Addison ($300,000), real estate mogul Richard Kurtz ($100,000) and Roku founder Anthony Wood ($53,000). The Lindner family of Ohio collectively contributed $282,600.
* The biggest contributors to Vance’s campaign committee [[link removed]] were employees of cleaning equipment manufacturer Kaivac Inc. Employees of the Ohio-based company donated $44,000. The second biggest cohort to support his campaign committee was the Republican Jewish Committee. Employees and PACs affiliated with RJC gave a total of $36,100.
* According to a financial disclosure report he filed in 2024 [[link removed]] , Vance has assets worth as much as $11 million, against up to $1.5 million in liabilities.
Why It Matters [[link removed]]
Additional profiles
* Chuck Schumer [[link removed]] , Senate minority leader
* John Ratcliffe [[link removed]] , director of the CIA
* Doug Collins [[link removed]] , secretary of veterans affairs
* Hakeem Jeffries [[link removed]] , House minority leader
* Lee Zeldin [[link removed]] , EPA administrator
* Howard Lutnick [[link removed]] , secretary of commerce
* Mike Waltz [[link removed]] , national security advisor
* Marco Rubio [[link removed]] , secretary of state
* Sean Duffy [[link removed]] , secretary of transportation
* Susie Wiles [[link removed]] , White House chief of staff
* Tulsi Gabbard [[link removed]] , director national intelligence
* Kash Patel [[link removed]] , director of the FBI
* Kristi Noem [[link removed]] , secretary of homeland security
* Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [[link removed]] , secretary of health and human services
* Linda McMahon [[link removed]] , secretary of education
* Elise Stefanik [[link removed]] , ambassador to the United Nations
* Doug Burgum [[link removed]] , secretary of the interior
* Pete Hegseth [[link removed]] , secretary of defense
* Pam Bondi [[link removed]] , attorney general
Rep. Dave Min called for ‘immediate’ stock trade transparency. He delayed disclosing his own sales.
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On April 10, the week after President Donald Trump announced his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariff plan, freshman Rep. Dave Min [[link removed]] (D-Calif.) wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson with a demand: Force lawmakers to “immediately” and formally disclose any personal stock trades they had just made.
“The public has the right to know whether anyone in the Congress profited from the considerable market instability and economic chaos caused by President Trump and his administration over the past week,” read the letter [[link removed]] , which was co-signed by five other congressional Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. (Johnson did not heed their request.)
“It would be unconscionable for any Member of Congress to use their personal position to benefit financially, especially in a time where Americans across the country are experiencing financial chaos,” the letter continued.
But Min didn’t mention one detail, reports Dave Levinthal : He had personally dumped a pair of stock holdings, together worth up to $30,000, three weeks prior to Trump’s announcement, which temporarily slapped large tariffs on dozens of nations across the world and caused stock indices to crash.
Not until the next week did Min file paperwork with the House of Representatives disclosing his own stock sales. While Min submitted the documentation within the mandated 45-day window, it was not “immediate.”
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What else we're reading
State budget plan requires disclosure of dark money spending. Critics say it's not enough [[link removed]] (Cincinnati Enquirer)
The AI lobby plants its flag in Washington [[link removed]] (Politico)
Lawmakers lobby doctors to keep quiet — or speak up — on Medicaid cuts in Trump’s tax bill [[link removed]] (STAT)
With $122M spent, the 2025 governor’s race is already New Jersey’s most expensive [[link removed]] (New Jersey Monitor)
OpenSecrets in the News
See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week:
Dan Crenshaw, once a Republican star, is now facing a growing list of challengers [[link removed]] (Houston Chronicle)
Going in Crenshaw’s favor is his ability to raise big money. In 2020 and 2022, he raised a combined $35 million for his two re-election campaigns and claimed easy victories. Compare that to the average U.S. House member who raised about $5 million combined in those two years, according to data from OpenSecrets.org, which tracks money in politics.
EPA Drops Legal Case Against the GEO Group, a Major Trump Donor, Over Its Misuse of Harmful Chemicals in ICE Facilities [[link removed]] (ProPublica)
The firm was the first corporation whose political action committee “maxed out” on contributions to Trump’s presidential campaign. A subsidiary company, GEO Acquisition II, also gave $1 million to the pro-Trump PAC Make America Great Again. The GEO Group, its PAC and individuals affiliated with the company collectively contributed $3.7 million to candidates and political committees in the 2024 election cycle, compared with $2.7 million in 2020, according to OpenSecrets, an independent group that tracks money in politics. They donated overwhelmingly to Republicans: In every election cycle since 2016, at least 87% of their donations to federal candidates went to Republicans.
Crypto, Oil, and Tobacco Industry Donations Fueled Republican Super PACs [[link removed]] (New York Magazine)
Koch Industries was one of the largest corporate donors to conservative super PACs over the past two election cycles, according to a Sludge review of data from OpenSecrets. Billionaire Charles Koch has not been in headlines as frequently as new Republican megadonor Elon Musk, but his company, known since last year as Koch Inc., has donated more than $70.9 million since the start of 2021 to conservative super PACs like Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Action, part of the political group founded and funded by its chairman and CEO Charles Koch.
How Trump and Musk are still linked - despite falling out [[link removed]] (BBC)
Over the course of the last year, Musk's donations to Trump and other Republicans have been enormous – totalling $290m (£214m) according to the campaign finance tracking site Open Secrets.
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