Despite a conversation with the top Senate Republican, “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance will not run for Senate in Ohio, he announced Friday.
“Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to run, but it’s just not a good time,” he wrote on Twitter.
“I thought seriously about running in August 2017, but decided that the timing was awful for my young family,” Vance elaborated in a statement accompanying the tweet. “Some things have changed since then, but not enough to make running a good idea.”
Vance said he would instead continue investing his time in his nonprofit work and his family.
“Count me out of politics for now,” he wrote.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had spoken to the best-selling author in early January about a potential run following GOP candidate Josh Mandel’s unexpected departure from the race, a source familiar with the call confirmed to CNN. Vance also has ties to Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the Koch Brothers and others within the conservative community, according to CNN’s source.
Vance’s decision leaves Republican Rep. Jim Renacci as the best-known GOP candidate to face incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Mike Gibbons, a businessman who has pledged to spend millions of his own dollars on the race, is also in the GOP primary.
Vance emerged as a national voice on the sentiments of white working-class Americans with his memoir of growing up in the Rust Belt. During the 2016 campaign, he often spoke to the motivations of Donald Trump voters in that community.
