One of the catchphrases of this election came three years ago when Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance mocked Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats whom he accused of being anti-family, calling them “childless cat ladies.”
Harris’ campaign and her Democratic allies seized on the remarks to denounce the Trump-Vance ticket as “odd,” forcing the former president and his vice presidential nominee to better explain their positions. Vance has long expressed concern about declining birth ratesand said the US cannot continue to exist as a nation if current trends continue.
Vance has not apologized and says he was taken out of context, claiming he wasn’t criticizing people for not having children, but for being “anti-children.”
Below is a summary of what Vance said.
Even before Vance entered politics, he was concerned about birth rates.
In a 2021 speech at the conservative nonprofit Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Virginia, he floated the idea of allowing parents to vote on behalf of their children. He has since said it was a “thought experiment” and not a policy proposal, and that it would be “ridiculous” to change the voting system.
On abortion, Vance says he is “pro-life” and has previously said he would support a federal bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy because he believes in exceptions. He now defends Trump’s approach of leaving the decision up to the states.
Vance has also said he would support expanding the child tax credit, currently $2,000, to $5,000. Democrats recently attacked him for skipping a recent Senate vote that would have expanded the child tax credit. However, he said the effort was a “show vote,” when bills are designed to fail but allow parties to emphasize issues to voters. In this case, Democrats sought to rebut claims by Vance that their party is “anti-family.”
He criticized the Biden administration’s efforts to control the rising costs of child care centers, saying the government is encouraging parents to return to work and neglecting those who would rather care for their children at home.
In interviews, Vance has praised the policies implemented by Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Victor Orban to encourage people to have more children and suggested that the United States copy the Hungarian model.
Orbán’s government has portrayed itself as a champion of family values, offering generous subsidies and tax breaks to families with children. For example, women who have four or more children are exempt from income tax for life. Married couples expecting to start a family can apply for low-interest loans provided by the state to buy a home. Some do not have to be repaid if a woman has more than three children.
However, as Hungary’s economy has fallen into deep recession, many of these family benefits have been cut or reduced. Moreover, some experts say the pro-family measures benefit only the middle and upper classes, while Hungary’s universal family subsidy, available to all families regardless of income, has remained at the same low level for decades, around $35 per child per month, even as Hungary has long struggled with some of the highest inflation in Europe.
In 2022, Orbán sparked international outrage when he said he did not want Europe to become a “mixed-race” society. He is fiercely opposed to immigration, saying it is not an answer to his country’s ageing population.
Vance likes to point to his own personal struggles when describing policies he believes would make raising children easier for other families.
Vance described a chaotic childhood raised by his grandparents in southwestern Ohio and a mother who struggled with substance abuse. He converted to Catholicism as an adult.
The senator and his wife, Usha Vance, have two boys, ages 4 and 7, and a 2-year-old girl. Usha Vance, an attorney, left the law firm where she worked shortly after her husband was chosen as Trump’s running mate. Usha has said she helped her husband with his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
The negative attention Vance received for some of his old statements meant that Trump had to explain and defend him.
“My interpretation is that he is very family-oriented. But that doesn’t mean that if you don’t have a family, there’s something wrong with it,” he said at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago.
Proponents of childbirth and marriage promotion measures have praised Vance for presenting and standing behind these ideas to a broader audience.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who has known Vance since his days as a writer and is running for governor, said he would suggest the senator “use a little less sarcasm” but praised him for starting a discussion on an important topic.
“We have to emphasize that this is all brand new. We don’t have any American politicians talking about this, and God bless him for raising the issue, because we need to have that conversation,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, Justin Spike in Budapest and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.