 that I've been an ally of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. It's been a meteoric rise to the highest levels of American politics for J.D. Vance. Born in Middletown, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati, Vance's early life was tough, his family struggling with poverty and drug addiction, which he chronicled in his best-selling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Allergy, turned into a Netflix adaptation in 2020.