How JD Vance’s Ohio Hometown Exceeded His Expectations

MIDDLETOWN >> In his bestselling 2016 memoir, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance wondered whether white Americans in rural areas like his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, had the drive to reverse their economic decline. But as Vance wrote, his hometown was in the midst of the grassroots revitalization he envisioned.

Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” attempted to explain the mentality of white voters in Appalachia at a time when many Americans were bewildered by the popularity of Donald Trump, who would win the presidential election later that year.

The Yale-educated Ohio senator, who was nominated earlier this month as Trump’s running mate in the Nov. 5 election, urged this struggling group to take more responsibility for their problems, stop looking to government or big business for solutions and work harder to improve their situation.

Parts of Middletown still reflect the tired image of the depressed industrial centers Vance wrote about: shabby strip malls lining sprawling, potholed thoroughfares in a city where Trump flags fly from pickup trucks.

But there’s a different vibe in the southwestern Ohio city’s downtown. A brewery, wine bar, art collective and even an opera house surround intersections bridged by sleek brick crosswalks and walls brightened with murals. Rainbow flags, left over from last month’s LGBTQ Pride celebrations, hang in several windows.

It is part of a revitalization that, while far from complete, belies the 2016 book’s description of a community that is a “center of misery” and whose people “respond to bad conditions in the worst possible way,” according to about two dozen locals interviewed by Reuters.

“We’ve been through this before, where we’ve had to reinvent ourselves. That’s what I think people lose sight of,” said Sam Ashworth, a trustee and former executive director of the city’s historical society.

Ashworth noted that the town’s population, which is about 78 percent white, experienced industrial shifts in the 20th century, with the loss of jobs in the tobacco and paper industries. “J.D.’s time in Middletown was very short,” said Ashworth, 83.

Middletown, Vance’s youth was plagued by downsizing and labor strife at the AK Steel plant. In 2003—the year Vance graduated from high school—the plant employed about 4,000 people, down from its heyday in the 1970s.

The 2007-2009 recession exacerbated the pressure, causing a decline in the city’s property tax revenues. AK Steel continued to shrink, employing about 2,300 people in 2012, city financial records show. The plant is now owned by Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

Vance’s memoir described displaced white communities as “a pessimistic bunch” and asked rhetorically whether they were “strong enough” to hold themselves accountable for their plight and reverse their fate. “We created[the problems]and only we can solve them,” the future U.S. senator wrote.

Middletown, part of a heavily conservative congressional district that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, is trying to do just that.

Between 2012 and 2022, the city’s income tax revenue rose from $19.7 million to $33.6 million, according to official data. Further fueling the optimism was Cleveland-Cliffs’ announcement this year of a $2 billion investment in its Middletown Works steel mill, and the city approved a new $200 million commercial development on 50 acres of municipal land.

The city, with a population of about 51,000, still struggles with high poverty and low middle income. In addition, the Hope House Mission, a local homeless shelter with 75 beds, is still at capacity, said Tim Williams, vice president of the shelter’s homeless services department.

But things are improving, and locals attribute that to the kind of bootstraps-style initiative that Vance cast doubt on. “He makes it seem like this place sucks you in and you’re doomed to fail,” said Rochelle Zecher, a 42-year-old shop owner. “But this community builds itself up.”

Vance’s spokesman declined to comment on Reuters’ reporting.

FEDERAL FUNDS

In 2011, the city government and the Middletown Community Foundation created Downtown Middletown Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps market the city’s commercial district. With limited capital after the recession, city officials got creative in finding money, including using funds left over from an earlier redevelopment loan.

That same year, the city convinced Cincinnati entrepreneur Jim Verdin to renovate a building that now houses the Pendleton Art Center, creating space for 30 art vendors at a low cost to Middletown.

Triple Moon Coffee Company, across the street from the arts center, was founded in 2015 by Heather Gibson, a lifelong Middletown resident who opened the business with money from her partner’s long-forgotten AK Steel retirement account.

The cafe is one of at least five LGBTQ-owned businesses in Middletown, said Duane Gordon, spokesman for the Middletown Pride Committee, adding that the city’s involvement with a broader range of communities has contributed to its economic revival.

Middletown has weathered the coronavirus pandemic with help from the federal government, receiving $19 million from Democratic President Joe Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan. Businesses in the city received a combined $75 million from the Paycheck Protection Program, a business-lending initiative signed by Trump and later extended by Biden, according to the federal government’s pandemic spending database.

The Republican Party’s 2024 platform promises to “curb wasteful federal spending” as a way to “promote economic growth,” and Vance has expressed skepticism about how much federal policymakers can do for local communities.

But Gibson, who used her PPP loan to open a drive-through behind her cafe, said the federal government saved her business.

“It was a case of sink or swim,” she said.