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Used the term "LOVE" in signing off, were they love
letters?

JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended
His political views differed from a transgender
classmate’s, but they forged a bond that lasted a
decade — until Mr. Vance seemed to pivot, politically
and personally.



https://archive.ph/kdYrE#selection-844.0-1699.175

By Stephanie Saul
Stephanie Saul, who covers education, reviewed about
90 emails and text messages spanning between 2014 and
2017.
July 27, 2024, 5:01 a.m. ET
When his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” was published in
2016, JD Vance sent an email apologizing to a close
friend from his Yale Law School days. The friend
identified as transgender, but Mr. Vance referred to
them in the book as a lesbian.
“Hey Sofes, here’s an excerpt from my book,” Mr.
Vance wrote to his friend, Sofia Nelson. “I send this
to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you
read it you’ll notice reference to ‘an extremely
progressive lesbian.’”
“I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect
how you think of yourself, and for that I am really
sorry,” he wrote. “I hope you’re not offended, but if
you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”
Nelson wrote back the same day, calling Mr. Vance
“buddy” and thanking him for “being sweet,” adding,
“If you had written gender queer radical pragmatist,
nobody would know what you mean.” Nelson asked for an
autographed copy, then signed off with, “Love,
Sofia.”
That exchange is from a series of emails between two
friends, part of a close-knit group of 16 students
who remained together throughout their first law
school semester in the fall of 2010. As now-Senator
Vance seeks the vice presidency, Nelson has shared
about 90 of their emails and text messages, primarily
from 2014 through 2017, with The New York Times.
Image
A portrait of Sofia Nelson in a suit and tie outside
a courthouse.
Sofia Nelson, a former law school classmate of Mr.
Vance, is now a public defender in
Detroit.Credit...Sylvia Jarrus for The New York Times
The emails, in which Mr. Vance criticizes former
President Donald J. Trump both for “racism” and as a
“morally reprehensible human being,” add to an
already-existing body of evidence showing Mr. Vance’s
ideological pivot from Never Trumper to Mr. Trump’s
running mate.
And they reflect a young man quite different from the
hard-right culture warrior of today who back then
brought homemade baked goods to his friend after
Nelson underwent transition-related surgery. The
visit cemented their bond.
“The content of the conversation was,” Nelson said in
an interview with The New York Times, “‘I don’t
understand what you’re doing, but I support you.’ And
that meant a lot to me at the time, because I think
that was the foundation of our friendship.”
Image
A screenshot of an email from Mr. Vance to Nelson in
2016.
The political views of the two were sharply
divergent, but their friendship would continue for a
decade, strengthened by their shared Midwestern roots
— Nelson grew up in Western Michigan and Mr. Vance in
Ohio — and cynical views of Ivy League elitism.
Nelson, a Tufts University graduate, had received a
prestigious Truman scholarship for law school,
indicating a desire to work in public service.
At times, they exchanged messages infrequently. At
other times, they would have energetic back-and-
forths several times a week. And their talks
reflected the history playing out around them —
protests against police violence in Ferguson, Mo.,
the massacre of Black churchgoers in Charleston,
S.C., and the 2016 campaign between Mr. Trump and
Hillary Clinton. Their conversations were notable not
only for Mr. Vance’s harsh comments about Mr. Trump,
but also for the tenderness and thoughtful tone in
the messages.
They provide what may be a textbook example of
respectful discourse, revealing a cultural
willingness by Mr. Vance to accept Nelson’s gender
identity, which sharply differs from the anti-
L.G.B.T.Q. sentiments evident at the Republican
National Convention.
Nelson, now a public defender in Detroit, said they
visited each other’s homes, talked on Zoom during the
pandemic and exchanged long emails discussing a range
of subjects, from the minutiae of daily life to
weighty discussions of current events and public
policy issues. Nelson attended Mr. Vance’s wedding in
Kentucky in 2014. They pondered doing a podcast
together — he suggested they call it “The Lunatic
Fringe.”
But Nelson and Mr. Vance had a falling out in 2021,
when Mr. Vance said publicly he supported an Arkansas
ban on gender-affirming care for minors, leading to a
bitter exchange that deeply hurt Nelson.
“He achieved great success and became very rich by
being a Never Trumper who explained the white working
class to the liberal elite,” Nelson said, referring
to Mr. Vance’s successful 2016 book. “Now he’s
amassing even more power by expressing the exact
opposite.”
Now, Nelson, who opposes the Trump/Vance ticket,
hopes the emails inform the opinion of voters about
Mr. Vance.
Responding to a request for comment on the emails,
Luke Schroeder, a spokesman for the Vance campaign,
issued a statement:
“It’s unfortunate this individual chose to leak
decade-old private conversations between friends to
The New York Times. Senator Vance values his
friendships with individuals across the political
spectrum. He has been open about the fact that some
of his views from a decade ago began to change after
becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has
thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on
President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator
Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very
best.”
Charting His Own Path
In 2014, they were both near the beginning of their
careers, about a year out of law school.
Mr. Vance shared that he was planning to buy a house
in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Usha, whom he
also met at Yale.
The Vances could afford a house in Washington’s
highly priced market partly because Mr. Vance was
starting a job in Big Law. “Blech,” he wrote then,
indicating his distaste for a career he had already
decided against. He would remain with the white-shoe
firm Sidley Austin for less than two years.
In the same exchange, Mr. Vance also wrote about his
wife’s interviews with justices of the Supreme Court,
where she was seeking a clerkship. Mr. Vance worried
that her seeming politically neutral, or lack of
“ideological chops,” could harm her chances.
“Scalia and Kagan moved very quickly,” Mr. Vance
wrote, referring to Antonin Scalia, the conservative
justice who died in 2016, and Elena Kagan, one of the
court’s current three liberal justices, “but she was
just not going to work out for Scalia.”
Nelson wrote back, “His homophobic screeds are hard
to believe in 2014.”
“He’s become a very shrill old man,” Mr. Vance
responded. “I used to really like him, and I used to
believe all of his stuff about judicial minimalism
was sincere. Now I see it as a political charade.”
Ms. Vance would end up clerking for Chief Justice
John G. Roberts Jr.
Image
A Gothis spire at Yale University.
Mr. Vance and Nelson were part of a close-knit group
of 16 students who remained together throughout their
first semester at Yale Law School in the fall of
2010.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New
York Times
On Cops, Body Cams and Pride Day
Like their conversations, Mr. Vance could be
surprising.
In October 2014, in the wake of the killing of
Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, by a white
police officer in Ferguson, Nelson raised the idea of
requiring that police officers wear body cameras.
“I hate the police,” Mr. Vance said in his response.
“Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in
the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy
goes through.”
Image
A screenshot of an email from Mr. Vance to Nelson.
Around the same time, the written conversation turned
to a much-discussed essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The
Atlantic making the case for reparations. Mr. Vance
offered that whatever problems he had with
reparations, generally, “I have at least been
convinced of the virtue of compensating modern
victims who’ve suffered redlining or denial of
federal benefits.”
By next summer, after a shooting at the Emanuel
A.M.E. Church in Charleston, the two were again
discussing race. Mr. Vance said he didn’t understand
why people “can’t see the connection between this
person murdering innocent people and the fact that
the Confederate flag — by democratic will — still
flies” at the South Carolina Statehouse. “I’m not
sure how to wrap my head around it.” (The flag was
removed from the Statehouse in Columbia a month
later.)
2024 Election: Live Updates›
Updated


“I think you’re my only liberal friend with whom I
talk openly about politics on a deeper sense,” Mr.
Vance wrote.
In June 2015, Mr. Vance also revealed to Nelson that
Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign had offered him a
job as senior domestic policy adviser, then reneged,
after discovering a negative piece he had written
about George W. Bush’s economic policies. (The New
York Times reached out to several former advisers to
Jeb Bush’s campaign, who could not confirm that there
was a job offer.)
Mr. Vance wrote to Nelson that he was looking forward
to getting together for a longer conversation with
“some bourbon and puppy dogs by my side.”
In 2015, Mr. Vance moved to California for a new
career in the tech industry, one he launched, he
suggested, after the Bush episode.
“It’s possible to view this entire extended foray
into the California tech scene as a wound-licking
exercise after my brief encounter with American
politics,” he wrote.
Living in the Bay Area at the time, on June 28 that
year, he wished Nelson “Happy Pride,” adding, “I’m
thinking of braving the crowds in S.F. just to people
watch.”
After attending the Pride Day parade, he wrote, “It
felt more like a frat party than I expected. But
still nice to see a lot of happy people.”
Opposing Trump
By 2015, Mr. Trump’s rise had begun. Mr. Vance’s Yale
friends, including Nelson, were not surprised that
Mr. Vance, whom they regarded as a moderate
Republican, was opposed to Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
Mr. Vance was rooting against Mr. Trump but also said
he could not bring himself to vote for Mrs. Clinton.
He vowed to cast his ballot for a third-party
candidate.
In December 2015, in emails analyzing the campaign,
he wrote that Mr. Trump’s appeal was misunderstood.
“If you look at the polling, the issue where Trump
gets the most support is on the economy,” Mr. Vance
wrote. “If the response of the media, and the elites
of both right and left, are to just say ‘look at
those dumb racists supporting Trump,’ then they’re
never going to learn the most important lesson of
Trump’s candidacy.”
And he said that he himself saw something in Mr.
Trump.
Mr. Vance wrote that he found it exhilarating that
the media and Wall Street seemed powerless against
Mr. Trump, also suggesting that he partly understood
the Trump appeal.
“If he would just tone down the racism, I would
literally be his biggest supporter,” he wrote.
Image
A screenshot of an email from JD Vance to Sofia
Nelson on Dec. 9, 2015.
The next day, on Dec. 9, 2015, the two would again
talk race, Mr. Trump and Muslims.
Nelson wrote that a Muslim friend had said that women
wearing hijabs no longer felt safe doing simple
things like going to the grocery store.
Mr. Vance responded, referring to Mr. Trump as a
demagogue.
“I’m obviously outraged at Trump’s rhetoric, and I
worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens
feel in their own country,” he wrote. “And there have
always been demagogues willing to exploit the people
who believe crazy shit. What seems different to me is
that the Republican Party offers nothing that’s as
attractive as the demagogue.”
Image
Mr. Vance, wearing a gray blazer, autographs a book
next to a man.
Mr. Vance autographing a copy of his book “Hillbilly
Elegy” after a campaign event in Ohio in
2022.Credit...Brian Kaiser for The New York Times
By 2016, he was touring the country promoting
“Hillbilly Elegy,” part memoir and part commentary on
the alienation of the white working class, many of
whom supported Mr. Trump’s election. “To Sofia, a
good friend, a fellow Midwesterner, and, despite
being a Godless liberal, a great person,” he would
inscribe in Nelson’s copy.
In September 2016, he shared a piece on implicit bias
that he wrote for The New York Times following Mrs.
Clinton’s ill-fated “basket of deplorables” comment,
thanking Nelson in the email for helping inform his
thinking in developing the essay.
“The more white people feel like voting for Trump,
the more Black people will suffer. I really believe
that,” he wrote.
Not only had Mr. Vance been critical of Mr. Trump for
racism, but he also said, “I’ve been very critical of
other Repubs for the L.G.B.T.Q. issue, especially
Rick Perry,” referring to the former Texas governor.
In another email a month later, he called Mr. Trump a
“disaster,” using a vulgarity, and added, “He’s just
a bad man.”
Image
An inscription from Mr. Vance to Nelson in their copy
of “Hillbilly Elegy”: “To Sofia, a good friend, a
fellow Midwesterner, and, despite being a Godless
liberal, a great person.”
And then, to the amazement of many Americans, Mr.
Trump won.
Nelson sent Mr. Vance a copy of an article in The
Onion, a satirical news site, that suggested liberals
were clueless about the country they lived in.
“This is funny. Thank you!” Mr. Vance wrote back.
“My zany prediction: in 20 years H.R.C. and Paul Ryan
will be part of the same party,” he continued, using
an abbreviation for Mrs. Clinton. “And you and I will
be on the other side.”
In January 2017, he expressed more sober concern.
“I’m deeply pessimistic right now,” he wrote. “I’ve
been thinking a lot about the civil rights movement
and legislation in the 1960s, and I wonder if our
society is healthy enough to accomplish anything of
that scale (or even close to it).”
A Political Career Beckons, and a Friendship Unravels
By 2017, Mr. Vance was planning a move back to Ohio.
According to Nelson, Mitch McConnell, the Senate
Republican leader, had reached out and encouraged him
to run as a Republican for Senator Sherrod Brown’s
seat.
He kicked the tires of a race as an anti-Trump
candidate against a formidable Democratic incumbent
and took a pass.
It would be four years later that he would run, this
time seeking Mr. Trump’s support, and win the open
Ohio seat that would put him in position to be Mr.
Trump’s running mate.
Nelson communicated with the Vances over Zoom early
in the pandemic, after their move back to Ohio. Their
email correspondence had died down, and Nelson had
noted a shift in the tone of Mr. Vance’s social media
postings. In April 2021, one particularly stood out.
On Twitter, Mr. Vance had come out in support of an
Arkansas measure banning gender-transitioning care
for minors. The bill was ultimately adopted over a
veto by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who had declared it an
overreach, before it was overturned by a court
ruling.
Image
A screenshot of text messages between Nelson, in
blue, and Mr. Vance in April 2021.
“Do you support the AR legislation criminalizing
providing medical care to trans kids?” Nelson texted
him in April 2021.
“I do. I recognize this is awkward but I’ll always be
honest with you,” Mr. Vance responded. “I think the
trans thing with kids is so unstudied that it amounts
to a form of experimentation.”
Nelson wrote back that his position “deeply saddens
me.”
“I know I can’t change your mind but the political
voice you have become seems so far from the man I got
to know in law school,” wrote Nelson, later
explaining their position “as a trans person who
accessed needed health care so I could live a full
life.”
“I have a 1:30,” Mr. Vance wrote. “I will always love
you, but I really do think the left’s cultural
progressivism is making it harder for normal people
to live their lives.”
It had been a friendship of the special type forged
in young adulthood, before the accumulation of life
responsibilities and fateful decisions already made.
Now, it was over.

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