J.D. Vance once worked for U.S Sen. John Cornyn

Sign up for the We the Texans newsletter to receive twice-monthly updates on our year-long initiative dedicated to boosting civic engagement and chronicling how democracy is experienced in Texas.

MADISON, Wisconsin — Before he was a best-selling author, a U.S. senator or a Republican nominee for vice president, J.D. Vance was a legal clerk for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

“So I guess I’ll claim a little bit of J.D. Vance fame,” Cornyn said Tuesday during a brief interview on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention. Former President Donald Trump revealed Vance as his running mate the day prior.

Vance, then going by the name James Hamel, clerked for Cornyn on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the summer of 2011 as a student at Yale Law School. Clerks assist Cornyn in his duties on the committee, including reviewing judicial nominations and oversight of the judiciary. Before being elected to the Senate, Cornyn served as Texas attorney general and as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

Cornyn said in an interview with Fox Business on Monday night that Vance was “a smart guy, incredibly well spoken.”

Cornyn praised Trump’s pick of Vance as a running mate, saying he “represents the next generation of Republican leaders.

“I’m excited that the president would think not only about his own election, but you know what the next generation looks like,” Cornyn said in the Tribune interview.

Vance entered the Senate in 2023 after making a name for himself with his autobiography, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book, which described his upbringing in rural Appalachia, became a national best seller. He also served in the Marines before college. After clerking with Cornyn, Vance clerked for U.S. District Judge David Bunning, an appointee of President George W. Bush. He later had a career in venture capital with Mithril Capital, a firm founded by Trump backer Peter Thiel.

Though today an ardent Trump supporter, Vance has criticized the former president in the past. He was self-identified as a “never Trump guy,” calling the former president “reprehensible,” a “cynical asshole” and “cultural heroin.”

Vance has since closely aligned himself with Trump in the Senate. Cornyn said now that the party’s nominee is selected, Republicans should move on from internal divisions.

“If Republicans are divided, it does nothing but help our adversaries. So I think we need to put aside any of those differences,” Cornyn said when asked about Vance’s past statements criticizing Trump. “Now the primaries are over and we need to be unified behind our ticket.”

Cornyn has a personal rule of not getting involved in primaries, though he said early in the cycle that he felt “Trump’s time has passed him by.” He eventually endorsed Trump after his primary win in New Hampshire.

“I know we’ve been through a bumpy primary season but actually primaries, I think, are very important,” Cornyn told Texas delegates at the RNC. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Picking Vance and his bare-knuckles support of Trump is a shift in strategy from Trump’s 2016 ticket. That year, he selected former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to borrow establishment credibility as he was breaking norms with his campaign. Pence and Trump had a falling out after Trump supporters chanting “Hang Mike Pence” attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The RNC has changed its tone considerably since 2016. Trump enjoys far more full throated support across the party. Delegates responded frostily to vestiges of the pre-Trump Republicanism that focused on strong defense spending. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had an epic rupture with Trump after the insurrectionJan. 6, 2021, was so loudly booed as he presented Kentucky’s votes for Trump on Monday night that he was unintelligible.

Democrats decried Vance as an ideological extension of Trump, whom they often call an existential threat to democracy.

“This is someone who supports banning abortion nationwide while criticizing exceptions for rape and incest survivors; railed against the Affordable Care Act , including its protections for millions with preexisting conditions; and has admitted he wouldn’t have certified the free and fair election in 2020,” President Joe Biden’s campaign said in a statement after Vance’s selection went public.

Big news: director and screenwriter Richard Linklater; NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher; U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; and Luci Baines Johnson will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!