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By Kaitlin Lewis
Night Reporter
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Ohio Senator JD Vance, Republican vice presidential nominee, pushed back against attacks on his origin story from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who is rumored to be on Vice President Kamala Harris' shortlist of possible running mates.
Beshear, a Democrat, appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe a day after Harris announced her bid for president. The Kentuckian gave his endorsement to the vice president, adding that he wants "the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they look like. Because let me just tell you that JD Vance ain't from here."
Vance—who was born in Middletown, Ohio, but has family roots from eastern Kentucky—hit back at Beshear, a scion of a Kentucky political family and son of a former governor.
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"Eastern Kentucky will always have a special place in my heart," Vance said, per a report from Politico's Meridith McGraw Monday. "It's very weird to have a guy whose first job was at his dad's law firm and inherited the governorship from his father criticize my origin story."
Beshear then doubled down on his comments while speaking with CNN's Kaitlan Collins later that evening, saying again of the senator, "He ain't from here."
"He is not from Kentucky. So this is a guy who would come maybe in the summers for some period of time, or to weddings or funerals. And then he claims to be from eastern Kentucky, tries to write a book about it to profit off our people, and then he calls us lazy," Beshear said, referring to Vance's bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which has received criticism for pushing stereotypes about the region of Appalachia.
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Beshear has said it is "flattering" to be included in speculation about Harris' vice presidential pick. As of Monday night, the governor told CNN, he has not been "personally asked" to submit any information for "vetting purposes" to the vice president's campaign.
Other Democrats whispered to be on Harris' shortlist for vice president include Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. As a former California senator and attorney general with roots in San Francisco, Harris will likely look for a running mate that will help her regain momentum in swing states, which in recent weeks have started to turn in former President Donald Trump's favor.
Beshear was first elected as Kentucky governor in 2019, just three years after Trump won the state by nearly 30 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election. Beshear was reelected in 2023 and Trump captured the state by roughly 25 points three years prior in the 2020 presidential election.
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Vance, who was elected to the Senate in 2022 alongside an endorsement from Trump, rose to prominence after the release of his Hillbilly Elegy memoir in 2016. He wrote the book as a reflection on white, working-class America, and it has received praised from several conservatives. It was also remade into a movie in 2020.
Some have criticized the senator's work for pushing stereotypes about the region of Appalachia, which includes parts of eastern Ohio and Kentucky. In one section, Vance appears to blame "hillbilly" culture on the reason for the struggles he was surrounded by growing up, writing, "We choose not to work when we should be looking for jobs. Sometimes we'll get a job, but it won't last ... We talk about the value of hard work but tell ourselves that the reason we're not working is some perceived unfairness: Obama shut down the coal mines, or all the jobs went to the Chinese. These are the lies we tell ourselves to solve the cognitive dissonance--the broken connection between the world we see and the values we preach."
Vance's hometown is in southwestern Ohio and is not part of Appalachia. His grandparents and extended family, however, with whom Vance said he spend considerable time, are from Jackson, Kentucky, per a report from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Ohio senator played to his connection to the Midwest working class during his first solo campaign event at his former high school in Middletown, Ohio, on Monday. He promised supporters at the event, "You're going to see more and more products stamped with that beautiful logo: 'Made in the USA.'"
"Who is sick of sending America's sons and daughters into foreign lands they have no business in?" Vance added in his speech, according to the Associated Press report on the rally.
Beshear said on CNN Monday evening that it makes him "angry" when Vance says he has roots in Appalachia, "but it especially makes me angry about our people in eastern Kentucky."
"Listen, these are the hardworking coalminers that powered the Industrial Revolution, that helped build the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, helped us win two world wars, and he called them lazy, acting like he understands our culture and he's one of us," Beshear said. "He's not."
An email was sent to Vance's campaign and Beshear's office late Monday night for additional comment.
Update 07/22/24, 11:38 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.
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