These Democrats worked with JD Vance in the Senate — and the reviews are mixed
Some Democrats lament that he’s all but abandoned his populist policies after a promising start
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Your support makes all the difference.Senator Elizabeth Warren has been one of JD Vance’s sharpest critics since former President Donald Trump picked the Ohio Republican senator as his vice presidential running mate. And that makes sense, given she was an early supporter of Kamala Harris going back to the vice president’s days as attorney general of California.
But back in Washington, the Massachusetts Democrat has happily worked with Vance, as the pair serve on the Senate Banking Committee and co-authored legislation to claw back executive pay for failed banks.
“It’s good legislation,” Warren told The Independent while she rushed out of the Senate after votes on Thursday. “I’m happy to work with anyone.”
The legislation is in line with Vance’s position that Republicans should shrug off the more free-market based ideas they’ve espoused over the past 50 years.
“We’re done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street,” he said in his speech at the Republican National Convention where he accepted the party’s nomination. “We’ll commit to the working man.”
But while Vance — a former venture capitalist who came to Washington as a MAGA warrior in 2023 — has successfully worked with Warren as he tries to shift the GOP’s positioning on economic policy, other Democrats have mixed reviews about their efforts to join forces, especially now that he’s the vice presidential nominee.
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, whom Hillary Clinton picked to be her running mate in 2016 against Trump and Mike Pence, collaborated with Vance on legislation to remove copays for child birth.
“I was very excited to work with him on,” he told The Independent. “So that no, family whatever, you know, feel like ‘oh, wow, to have a child I’m going to be in debt right out of the gate.’ And we had a good bipartisan group working on it. But, you know, he, his office communicated that they wanted to pause that effort now that he’s on the ticket.”
The legislation would make sense for both Vance and Kaine — who are Catholics — as it’s in line with conservative desires to make having a child easier so abortion is less of a temptation, as well as Democratic efforts to stop insurance companies from gouging consumers. But it ultimately fell apart.
Similarly, Vance teamed up with Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida, Democratic Senators John Fetterman and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and fellow Ohioan Sherrod Brown for legislation to improve railroad safety after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
When he testified before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee last year, Vance excoriated Republicans’ unwillingness to regulate the rail industry while also saying people in places like East Palestine are “a little too rural, maybe a little too white.”
But Fetterman had few nice things to say about Vance on Thursday, saying he failed to deliver the votes for the bill.
“And I would hate to think that they are unwilling to give a win for for our colleague Brown,” he told The Independent. “I hope that’s not the case.”
Brown is in a difficult Senate race in Ohio against car dealer Bernie Moreno, whom Vance endorsed fairly early last year. As a Democrat in an increasingly red state, the legislation would give him a win.
But Casey, who also is running for re-election in a swing state, had nicer things to say about Vance.
“Well, it’s been a great bipartisan effort,” Casey told The Independent. “We have to, still have to get it done. I don’t know... whether or not we have enough Republican votes to get it.”
Hawley for his part said he doesn’t know what will happen to the bill, though in the past he has faulted Republican leadership on it.
Similarly, Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, who came to the Senate in 2023 with Vance, praised the Republican VP nominee.
“Well, we work on affordable connectivity,” told The Independent. “And he’s a smart guy.”
But Welch’s words are par for the course for the “nicest guy in Washington, DC,” who gets along with everyone from Fetterman to Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama.
Historically, vice presidents have been the president’s liaison to the Senate. Barack Obama dispatched Joe Biden given his 36 years in the upper chamber and friendship with Mitch McConnell. Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, regularly visited Capitol Hill, and when Biden had only a 50-seat majority for his first two years, Harris would regularly head over to Pennsylvania avenue to break ties in the Senate.
But Vance’s limited record and his rankling of Democrats shows he might have difficulty being Trump’s enforcer in the Club of 100.
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