“I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give you everything I have, to serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family, and your country can be possible once again,” said JD Vance accepting the Vice Presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention.

Post a prayer for your state!

View Comments (18)

On January 20, 2025, JD Vance was sworn in as the as the country’s 50^th Vice President. Mr. Vance is the shining example of the American Dream – the ideal that any American can succeed.

Mr. Vance was raised in poverty and a broken home, but he worked hard, took advantage of educational opportunities, served in the Marine Corps, became a best-selling author, worked as a lawyer, venture capitalist, senator, and now Vice President.

A Difficult Childhood

Vice President Vance was born James Donald Bowman in the rust belt town of Middleton, Ohio to a mother who struggled with addiction and an absent father. But Mr. Vance also identifies strongly with his Appalachian Mountain roots of his extended family of rural Kentucky.

His childhood was chaotic, volatile and mired in dreadful poverty. His mother’s addiction forced his grandmother, his beloved Mamaw, to step in and raise him. Mr. Vance recalls, “My grandparents, Mamaw and Papaw, were the best things that ever happened to me.”

It was Mamaw who gave him the only stability he knew growing up. She instilled in him an emphasis on personal responsibility and to reject the victim mentality. His Mamaw told him, “Never be like those losers who the think the deck is stacked against them. You can do anything you want to.” Isn’t that the American Dream?

Mr. Vance has said about his upbring, “Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbors, friends, and family.” His Mamaw and Papaw were Vances, so a young JD took the name Vance to honor them and where he came from.

Working Hard

But Mr. Vance would not let his poor, and oftentimes violent childhood hold him back. He credits his grandparents with the love, stability and self-confidence to work hard and pull himself up by his bootstraps. He believed that “to coast through life was to squander my God-given talent, so I had to work hard.”

After 9/11 and like many working-class children, Vance joined the military and served as a combat correspondent in Iraq. After four years, he returned home to Ohio. Using the GI Bill, he attended Ohio State University, graduating in 3 years. He then went to Yale Law School where he struggled to fit in and felt like a “cultural alien.”

After graduating from law school in 2013, Vance worked as a lawyer for the next three years, before heading to San Francisco to work for the venture capitalist, Peter Thiel. In 2019, he returned to Ohio to work and eventually ran for the Senate.

A Best-Selling Author and Never Trumper

In 2016, Mr. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and a Culture in Crisis quickly became a #1 New York Times best-seller. Ron Howard turned his book into a movie in 2020 with Amy Adams, Glenn Close and Gabriel Basso.

His memoir came out the same year that President Trump emerged as the Republican front-runner and won the presidency against the “undefeatable” Hillary Clinton. At the time, Mr. Vance proclaimed himself a “Never Trump guy”, even calling Mr. Trump an “idiot” and “Hitler”. He went so far as to say, “Mr Trump is unfit for our nation’s office”, even though his white, working-class family back in Ohio and Kentucky adored Trump.

But that was 2016. In 2018, Mr. Vance’s stance was softening as he saw Trump’s policies making a positive difference to the people of Ohio. In 2020, he apologized for his past remarks and supported Mr. Trump’s re-election bid, saying, “I was wrong about the guy. He was a great president.”

A Turm to MAGA

In 2021, Mr Vance ran for the Senate. He received Mr. Trump’s endorsement in deep red MAGA Ohio. In his endorsement, Mr. Trump said, “Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he gets it now.”

In response Mr. Vance posted he was “incredibly honored” by Trump’s endorsement and pledged to support his MAGA agenda predicting that Trump was “an incredible fighter for hard working Americans in the White House and would be again.” Mr. Vance won his Senate seat in the 2022 midterms.

As a junior senator, Mr. Vance was a reliable conservative vote, supporting populist economic policies, and a vocal skeptic of the massive aid to Ukraine. He sponsored 57 bills and proposed legislation to end federal funding to colleges that allowed pro-Hamas protests or employed illegal aliens. He soon emerged as a leading contender for Trump’s vice president.

Little did Mr Vance know when he made that prediction in 2021 that he would be standing side by side with President Trump as his Vice President in 2025.

In less than three years, at the young age of 40, Mr. Vance has gone from Senator to outspoken supporter and articulate defender of the Trump agenda, first on the 2024 campaign trail and now as President Trump’s loyal Vice President.

Mr. Vance is now a heartbeat from the U.S. Presidency and is already the frontrunner in the 2028 presidential race.

A Loving Wife and Family

Mr Vance met his lovely wife, Usha Chilukuri, at Yale. Yet their upbringings couldn’t have been more different. While Mr. Vance grew up in poverty in middle America, Mrs. Vance, the daughter of immigrants from India, grew up in an upper middle-class home in the San Diego suburbs. She worked for Chief Justice John Roberts at the Supreme Court and clerked for Brett Kavanaugh at the Appellate Court before his appointment to justice.

Usha helped Vance navigate Yale culture, even teaching him the right cutlery to use at a fancy dinner. Vance wrote in Hillbilly Elegy, “In a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha’s presence made me feel at home.”

In her speech introducing her husband at the Republican National Convention, she described her husband as a “working-class guy who overcame childhood trauma I could barely fathom.”

The Vances have three children, Ewan, age 7, Vivek, age 5 and Mirabel, age 3. Vance calls Usha, his darling wife. In his acceptance speech, he spoke of what the American Dream meant to him.

“Some people tell me I’ve lived the American dream, and of course they’re right. And I’m so grateful for it. But the American dream that always counted most was not starting a business or becoming a senator or even being here with you fine people, though it’s pretty awesome. My most important American dream was becoming a good husband and a good dad. Of being able to give my kids the things that I didn’t have when I was growing up. And that’s the accomplishment I’m proudest of.”

His Journey of Faith

Vance describes his Mamaw, who raised him, as a woman of deep faith. She loved Jesus, Billy Graham, and The 700 Club, but hated organized religion.

During his teen years, he reconnected with his biological father. His father had given up drinking and become a Pentecostal. He took Vance to his large church with his new family. Vance loved it.

After the Marines, he flirted with atheism for a while but still felt the touch of God in his life. He began reading the writings of St. Augustine who helped Vance understand Christian faith in an intellectual way. One of Vance’s aunts had married a Catholic and he admired his Uncle Dan more than any other man for his faithful example of Christian living

Vance connected with the Catholic faith and doctrine after Mamaw died in 2005. He says, “I became persuaded over time that Catholicism was true. I was raised Christian but never had a super-strong attachment to any denomination, and was never baptized.”

He eventually was baptized and received into the Catholic Church in 2019. When asked about his faith and his politics, Vance replied,

“My views on public policy and what the optimal state should look like are pretty aligned with Catholic social teaching. That was one of the things that drew me to the Catholic Church. I saw a real overlap between what I would like to see and what the Catholic Church would like to see.”

His wife, Usha is not a Christian. Her parents are Hindu, and she says she did not grow up in a religious household. But she is fully supportive of her husband’s conversion to Catholicism, saying, “I knew that JD was searching for something. This just felt right to him.”

Vance describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican” in that order.

During his speech at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Committee, Vance proclaimed the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith as “the Son of God became man. He died and He raised Himself from the dead.”

He went on to say, “I just try to remind myself that we put our faith in God above, we put our faith in the grace of God, and we try the best to do His will, and we don’t worry so much about whether we’re going to have earthly rewards, we worry about whether we’re doing right by God Almighty above. That’s what I try to do, and that’s how I try to run my life in public.

Let’s Pray for the Vice President

God raised up JD Vance for this moment in time to serve our country as the second in command. President Trump chose him to be his right hand, to work together to restore the American Dream. So, as 1^st Timothy 2 commands, let us pray for all in authority and especially for Vice President JD Vance.

• Vance is a professing Catholic Christian. Pray that his relationship with Jesus would strengthen and deepen. Pray he would surrender all to the Lord’s guidance and walk humbly with his God, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. May God draw Mr. Vance close to Himself through His grace.
• Pray that VP Vance would fear the Lord and his desire would be to please God and not man. May he serve the Lord in truth with all his heart and consider what great things God has done for him. Pray that his every thought word and action be for the greater glory of God and the wellbeing of the American people.
• Pray that Mr. Vance would always have our country’s best interest at heart, and he would give wise counsel with the mind of Christ to the president. May he never grow tired of doing good. Pray that he would have a servant’s heart and would be an instrument of God to fulfill His will for the nation.
• Pray that God would shield Mr. Vance from all the forces of wickedness and protect him from all physical and spiritual harm. May he strap on the full armor of God and stand fast for the heavenly Kingdom here on earth.
• Pray for Mr. Vance’s wife and young children. Pray that Vance’s faith is a powerful witness and godly example to his wife that she may come to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Pray for a strong hedge of protection surround his family so no darkness and danger can enter their lives. Pray they remain strong in their love for one another, and grow together as a family in loving Jesus.

Heavenly Father, please bless Vice President JD Vance. Guide him with your wisdom, love, grace and purpose as he undertakes his responsibilities. Grant him heavenly discernment so he may be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Guide him always in the truth of Christ and may Your will be done in our nation. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Add your own prayers for Vice President Vance in the comments below.

Belinda Brewster analyzes cultural, political, and world events from a biblical worldview. Belinda’s passion is to equip, support, and encourage parents and grandparents who are courageously battling against the spiritual and cultural forces impacting children and grandchildren. Photo Credit: Office of Vice President of the United States.