Will you sign the petition to demand that JD Vance release his tax returns?
Dear MoveOn member,
My name is Matt Hildreth. As someone who grew up on a small farm in eastern South Dakota, my work at Rural Organizing is personal. Unlike politicians like Senator JD Vance, who seems to have disdain for the small towns and rural communities he is supposed to serve, I care deeply about the people and families who live and work in rural areas across America. And I believe rural voters deserve transparency from their elected officials. Now that Senator Vance has been named Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate, we're calling on him to release his tax returns—just as Vice President Mike Pence did, just like Vice President Kamala Harris did, and just like President Joe Biden did.
Sign the petition and urge JD Vance to release his tax returns from the past 10 years!
Over the course of his relatively short political career, Senator Vance has claimed a "rags-to-riches" story, authoring "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," a book detailing his childhood in the Ohio suburbs, raised by parents from the Appalachians in eastern Kentucky. The book has largely been criticized for its erasure of Black communities and structural racism shaping rural Appalachia, as well as its stereotypical, classist, and at times disdainful descriptions of poverty, addiction, and struggle in rural America.1
In his book, Senator Vance paints the picture of a "culture in crisis" and blames rural communities for the opioid crisis, meanwhile failing to disclose his connections as a lawyer for a lobbying firm hired by Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin.2 And his political rise was funded not by grassroots efforts but rather far-right tech billionaire and 2020 election denier Peter Thiel and dark money.3 Which leaves us questioning, what else is Senator Vance hiding?
I lived in Ohio as Senator Vance was rising in the ranks. At that time, he was anti-Trump and seemed to be willing to talk about the topics everyday people in small towns were struggling with. But his memoir (which perpetuates the harmful "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" myth), his connection to billionaires (none of which have financially benefited the rural communities his book and career exploited), and his extreme pivot to MAGA politics have left rural communities with more questions than answers.
Transparency is the foundation of any functioning democracy, but we still know very little about Senator Vance, and the source of his wealth remains undisclosed. The media has only recently started to expose the major holes in Senator Vance's resume, including his now-shuttered shady nonprofit, Our Ohio Renewal—an organization founded in 2016 with a murky mission and ending with an even more unclear impact. The nonprofit came under fire when it was revealed that they employed an addiction specialist for a yearlong residency in Ohio who also had ties to Purdue Pharma and commonly denied the connection between prescription painkillers and the opioid epidemic.4 It was also revealed that the nonprofit spent $0 on charitable activities and grants.5
Taking a page from Trump's playbook, Senator Vance wants to trick everyday Americans into thinking he is "self-made" when in reality his career has been funded by special interests and the wealthy. Billionaire Thiel appears to be responsible for major developments in Senator Vance's career, including helping him get his first "venture capitalist" job and donating a staggering $15 million—the largest donation ever given for a single Senate candidate—to get him elected to the Senate in 2022.6,7 This should really make us question whose interest he is really looking out for. Before voters head to the polls this November, they deserve to know the truth about Senator Vance and to have transparency into his financial records.
Thanks for all you do.
–Matt Hildreth, Rural Organizing
Sources:
1. "JD Vance's confusing evolution from liberal touchstone to Maga superstar," The Guardian, July 21, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194730?t=7&akid=399696%2E53570607%2EE_f66m
2. "J.D. Vance has a Big Pharma problem," Salon, August 20, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/194738?t=9&akid=399696%2E53570607%2EE_f66m
3. "A mole hunt, a secret website and Peter Thiel's big risk: How J.D. Vance won his primary," Politico, May 3, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/194731?t=11&akid=399696%2E53570607%2EE_f66m
4. "Vance's anti-drug charity enlisted doctor echoing Big Pharma," Associated Press, August 18, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/194733?t=13&akid=399696%2E53570607%2EE_f66m
5. "Super PAC backing JD Vance publishes opposition file on him," Washington Examiner, May 5, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/194734?t=15&akid=399696%2E53570607%2EE_f66m
6. "JD Vance owes almost everything to Peter Thiel, a pro-Trump billionaire and 'New Right' ideologue," Salon, July 22, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194735?t=17&akid=399696%2E53570607%2EE_f66m
7. "A mole hunt, a secret website and Peter Thiel's big risk: How J.D. Vance won his primary," Politico, May 3, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/194731?t=19&akid=399696%2E53570607%2EE_f66m
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