The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
GOP VP Nominee J. D. Vance is an Enemy of Free Markets
The Ohio Senator is one of the Party's leading advocates of protectionism, economic planning, and immigration restrictions.
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance just became Donald Trump's running mate. If you care about free markets and liberty generally, he's just about the worst person the Republicans could have chosen, among those who got serious consideration.
Since being elected to the Senate in 2022, Vance has become one of the GOP's leading champions of protectionism, economic regulation and planning through "industrial policy," restrictions on foreign investment, and—of course—immigration restrictions. As Alex Nowrasteh and I explained in our article "The Case Against Nationalism," these right-wing forms of central planning have most of the same weaknesses as their socialist counterparts. These policies create terrible incentives, and predictably make the nation poorer and less innovative.
Vance also shares right-wing nationalists' penchant for conspiracy theories. For example, has endorsed bogus claims the 2020 election was rigged against Trump, and said he would have connived in Trump's scheme to overturn the 2020 election had he been in the place of then-vice president Mike Pence (who, to his credit, refused to do so).
Vance is also one of the GOP's leading opponents of US aid to Ukraine in resisting Vladimir Putin's brutal war of aggression. He tried hard to block the deal on aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan reached by the White House and GOP Speaker Mike Johnson in April. There is a strong case for aiding Ukraine on both moral and strategic grounds. Letting Vladimir Putin have his way won't "make America great again." It will just make us look simultaneously weak and unprincipled. These problems would be accentuated by Vance's support for the massive trade war Trump wants to start with our allies—arising from their joint commitment to large-scale protectionism.
If you wanted Trump to select a VP with at least some commitment to relatively free market policies and some tendency to restrict Trump's own worst impulses, Vance is one of the last people you would want to see chosen.
Vance wasn't always like this. I am a fan of his 2016 book, Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir of his upbringing in a poor Appalachian family. His 2016 warning that Trump is an "opioid of the masses" was in many ways valid; he rightly predicted that Trump could not solve the problems of declining communities by policies like building border walls, and escalating the War on Drugs.
In 2017, Vance and I had an exchange about his argument that talented people living in poor and declining communities should stay where they are, rather than move to places where there is greater opportunity. I emphasized that empowering people to "vote with their feet" is one of the best ways to increase opportunity for them, and make our society more innovative and productive. I also noted that Vance's own life is an example of that dynamic:
If you read his moving book, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that his life was transformed by [mobility]: leaving home to join the Marine Corps, get a college degree at Ohio State University, and eventually going to Yale, opened up opportunities that he probably would never have had if he had not left home. As a result, he is now a far more productive member of society than he likely would have been otherwise.
Although Vance has returned to his home state, he did not move back to the depressed community where he grew up, but to Columbus, a thriving city whose economy has done very well in recent years. He likely concluded that he and his family would be happier, more productive, and better able to serve society there than in a less successful part of the state.
We continued the exchange on Twitter. But I cannot find that part now.
In my later book Free to Move, I pointed out that Vance's story of success through domestic foot voting is also similar to that of people who transformed their lives through international migration. Almost all the standard arguments against allowing the latter also apply to the former.
Over the last several years, Vance has undergone a kind of ideological transformation, becoming a prominent advocate of the MAGA populism he previously opposed. Sadly, the policies Vance now advocates would destroy opportunities for immigrants and natives alike, and in the process make America weaker and poorer.
