JD Vance has some weird influences

JD Vance, at 39, would be the first millennial vice president. But not only is he a new generation, he might also be the first American vice president to take his intellectual armoury from the extremely online world of the New Right. 

Vance says he is ‘plugged into a lot of weird, right-wing subcultures’. He draws from a whole new political lexicon, one that would seem baffling to his more starched colleagues in the Congress. Even someone like Alexandra Ocasio Cortez – 34 years old – is taking her cues from a more orthodox political tradition. 

The New Right is a tag that has been worn by many radically different movements down the years. But this version crystallised most publicly in a 2022 Vanity Fair piece entitled ‘Inside The New Right, Where Peter Thiel Is Placing His Biggest Bets’. Vance worked under Thiel at Mithril Capital, and Thiel gave Vance $10 million for his Senate run in 2022.