Background on the candidate’s statements, positions, and record on diplomacy, global development, and U.S. international affairs programs.

A Marine veteran, former Silicon Valley venture capitalist, New York Times best-selling author, and U.S. Senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance has been one of the toughest critics of American engagement overseas, focusing first and foremost on domestic policy. He is deeply skeptical of the U.S.-led rules-based international order, which he views as “harming working-class people who are rooted in older industrial economies – all while failing to deliver on the ultimate goal of liberalizing non-democratic countries like China and Russia.”

He frequently describes U.S. foreign policy decisions as a direct choice between U.S. global engagement and domestic priorities, stating that “we should a have foreign policy that recognizes that the moral intuitions that should most matter are the moral intuitions of American citizens” and that “the most important part of American foreign policy is actually the strength of our domestic economy and the strength of our domestic population.”

Vance has made the threat of China significant focus of his foreign policy views, stating “America must focus on our core national security interests.” In outlining his ideology, Vance recently declared “We are for an American nation that is built by American people that employs American workers. We’ve got to be self-sufficient. Make our stuff and do it for our own people.” And that the “rules-based international order—has been designed to benefit global elites and hurt working people, resulting in an America in decline.”

In the Senate, Vance has been outspoken in his opposition to providing more resources and aid to Ukraine, including vocally opposing the national security emergency funding package. Although he was supportive of Israel and providing aid in its war against Hamas as a stand-alone measure, Vance does not believe it is in “America’s interest to continue to fund, effectively a never-ending war in Ukraine.”

More broadly, Vance views the debate over foreign aid and providing assistance to Ukraine “as a proxy for the debate over the direction of what he openly calls ‘the American empire’— and, by extension, of America as a whole.”