Topline
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is likely to be grilled about his associations with the controversial policy agenda known as Project 2025 at Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, as the nominee has close ties to the group behind it that have complicated former President Donald Trump’s efforts to distance himself from the controversial policy agenda.
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign town hall in Monroeville, Pa., on Sept. 28.
Key Facts
Project 2025 is a blueprint for the next conservative administration—namely a Trump presidency—developed by the Heritage Foundation with support from other right-wing organizations, which has primarily gained attention for its 900-page policy roadmap proposing wide-reaching and controversial changes to every aspect of the executive branch.
Trump has publicly disavowed Project 2025 as the policy agenda has come under scrutiny for its extreme right-wing proposals, saying on Truth Social that he has “no idea” who’s behind the project—even as more than 100 people who served in his administration helped craft it—and that he has “nothing to do with them,” calling some of the policies “ridiculous and abysmal.”
Vance, however, openly has close ties with the Heritage Foundation and its founder Kevin Roberts, who told reporters the organization was privately “really rooting” for Vance to be the VP pick and told Politico in March that the senator “is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.”
Vance penned the foreword to Roberts’ forthcoming book—in which he quoted Roberts as saying “it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets” and praises the Heritage Foundation as “the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump,” also noting Roberts’ book “explores many of the themes I’ve focused on in my own work.”
The senator has long had a relationship with the Heritage Foundation, writing the introduction to a 2017 report the group released that decries a rise in unwed births, abortion, public benefits and “the ideology of the sexual revolution,” with one section lamenting women having children at older ages and “spending a large portion of their most fertile years building their careers” and criticizing in vitro fertilization.
Trump’s running mate has not explicitly endorsed Project 2025, but said “there are some good ideas” in its policy proposals—though he also noted there are some things in it he “disagrees” with, and disavowed it having any connection to the Trump campaign.
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News Peg
Vance will debate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in Philadelphia Tuesday night. The debate comes after the Harris campaign and Democrats have repeatedly brought up Project 2025 and its extreme proposals on the campaign trail, pointing to it and Vance’s support for the Heritage Foundation as a key reason to vote for Harris. “No matter what Vance tries to say tonight on the debate stage, he and Trump have already shown us who they are when it comes to their close ties to Project 2025’s wildly unpopular agenda,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Alex Floyd said in a statement Tuesday.
Chief Critic
When approached for comment, Vance’s Senate office pointed Forbes to a July 7 “Meet the Press” interview in which the senator said he “guarantee[s] there are things that Trump likes and dislikes about” Project 2025, “but he is the person who will determine the agenda of the next administration.” When asked about the 2017 report he was involved with, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder told The New York Times the now-senator has “long made clear that he supports IVF and does not agree with every opinion in this seven-year-old report, which features a range of unique views from dozens of conservative thinkers,” and criticized the publication for “attacking Senator Vance for the views of other individuals.” The Trump campaign and Heritage Foundation did not respond to requests for comment on Vance’s ties to the organization, though the organization told The New York Times Vance had “no role in producing or approving the contents” of the 2017 report.
Crucial Quote
The Heritage Foundation “is going to play a major role in helping us figure out how to govern, at the White House, at the Senate, at the House and all across our great country,” Vance said in an April 2023 speech at a Heritage Foundation event. CNN notes his speech took place one day before Project 2025’s policy proposals were unveiled.
What Does Project 2025 Propose?
Project 2025’s proposals touch every aspect of the executive branch, and the guidebook broadly calls for an overhaul of the federal government centered around values of dismantling the “administrative state,” prioritizing the nuclear family, defending the U.S. against global threats and securing “the blessings of liberty.” Its most sweeping proposals include reshaping the federal workforce to replace career bureaucrats with political appointees and abolishing many agencies entirely, including the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The proposals take a broad stance against transgender rights and other “woke” policies and would get rid of much of the federal government’s efforts to combat climate change, alongside other moves like ending all student loan forgiveness and imposing baseline tax rates and getting rid of most deductions and benefits. It also proposes overhauling the Federal Reserve by either getting rid of the government’s control over money entirely or returning the U.S. to the gold standard.
Tangent
Vance has also been a major proponent of a key proposal in Project 2025 that Trump should overhaul the federal workforce to replace many career civil servants with political appointees. He said in a 2021 podcast appearance that Trump should fire “every civil servant in the administrative state,” telling ABC News in February he wants to “replace the mid-level bureaucrats with people who are responsive to the administration’s agenda.”
What To Watch For
What Trump and Vance will do in office if elected. Trump is under no obligation to follow Project 2025’s policies, though much of the agenda his campaign released shares similar goals. While Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025 in this election, he did follow a similar policy proposal that the Heritage Foundation crafted for Trump ahead of his 2016 election win. The organization boasted two years into his tenure that Trump had already followed 64% of its recommendations, CBS News notes.
Big Number
93%. That’s Vance’s score from Heritage Action for America, the Heritage Foundation’s political arm, based on how much his beliefs line up with the organization. That’s much higher than the 61% average among Senate Republicans.
Key Background
Trump named Vance as his running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention in July, ending months of speculation over who his pick would be as the Ohio senator beat out other competitors like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Vance initially gained national attention as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” a memoir recounting his working-class upbringing, and was an outspoken Trump critic in 2016 before he ultimately changed his public stance and backed the ex-president, earning his endorsement when Vance ran for Senate in 2022. While its policy proposals were first released last year, Project 2025 has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, particularly after Trump publicly distanced himself from the policy. Democrats have frequently pointed to the policy proposal as a key reason to oppose Trump’s candidacy, particularly as President Joe Biden came under criticism following his poor debate performance.
