Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Wednesday pushed back against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) dig at him for going to Yale University, saying he is “proud” of what he has accomplished.
“As you guys know, I grew up in a very poor family. I was raised by a grandmother who didn’t graduate from high school, much less from college, and I’m proud of the fact that she really worked her tail off, that she, you know, went to her grave fighting to give me opportunities,” Vance said Wednesday on Fox News. “I’m not ashamed of the fact that my grandmother scarified for me and I was able to live the American dream.”
Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, was responding to Walz’s speech accepting the vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention, during which the governor brought up Yale, the Ivy League school where Vance studied law.
The speech leaned heavily into Walz’s small-town and Midwestern roots.
“I had 24 kids in my high school class and none of them went to Yale,” Walz said Wednesday night. “But I’ll tell you what, growing up in a small town like that, you learn to take care of each other.”
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum, speaking with Vance shortly after the speech, suggested Walz “was basically calling [Vance] ‘Mr. Fancy Pants Ivy league.'”
“I’m proud of what I accomplished, and more importantly, I’m proud of all the people who scarified in order to give me a better life,” Vance responded. “I would think Tim Walz would want to praise people who scarified to give their children and grandchildren a better life. Not put me down, but I guess this is the political order of the day. He’s going to attack me. That’s fine, but I’m proud of my family.”
Walz grew up in a small town in Nebraska, enlisted in the Army National Guard after high school graduation and attended Chadron State College in Nebraska to study social sciences.
Vance also frequently touts his own upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, and his decision to join the Marines out of high school.
Walz’s comments gained attention on other networks as well.
NBC News’s Tom Llamas said to Vance, “He made fun of the fact you went to Yale.”
“What a nasty personal attack,” Vance responded. “Why isn’t Governor Walz talking about Kamala Harris’s record and how she’s made the lives of the American people better? The answer is: because he can’t say that.”
The Yale dig also came up during a CNN panel, during which Republican strategist Scott Jennings said “the constant attacks on JD Vance for going to Yale” are “so weird.”
“I don’t understand this. I’ve heard Walz proclaim to be a small-town guy who wants everybody to get an education and succeed, but spends a fair amount of time attacking JD Vance, who grew up poor and got an education, worked hard to get an education and rise above his station in life,” Jennings said.
“And he has used it as a punchline on the campaign trail. I don’t understand what he’s trying to communicate to every small-town poor kid out there saying, ‘If you choose to work hard and go to an Ivy League school, you somehow abandoned your hometown,'” he continued.
Democratic strategist Van Jones, who also sat on the panel and graduated from Yale Law School, said he agreed with the point.
“As one of those small-town kids who actually went to Yale, I do take exception to that. I think you are correct on that,” he said.
