Democrats sharpen criticism of Vance as they look past Trump to the 2028 presidential campaign

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear mingles with the audience at a Democratic fundraiser in Butler County, Ohio, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Julie Carr Smyth) 2026-03-22T12:20:51Z FAIRFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Although President Donald Trump is the top Democratic nemesis, some of the party’s most ambitious leaders are increasingly looking past him and at Vice President JD Vance . In the latest example, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear traveled to Vance’s home county in Ohio, where on Saturday night he said the vice president had abandoned the communities that he wrote about in the memoir that made him famous. Beshear said “Hillbilly Elegy,” which detailed Vance’s hardscrabble upbringing, had “trafficked in tired stereotypes.” “His book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ was really hillbilly hate,” the governor said at a Democratic fundraiser in Butler County. “It is poverty tourism, because he ain’t from Appalachia.” The broadside was not only a sign of Beshear’s own potential presidential aspirations, but a reflection of Vance’s status as the Republican heir apparent to the coalition that twice elected Trump to the White House. “With every day that passes, we get closer to a day when Donald Trump is no longer president. And we need to prepare for that day,” said Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist. “Right now, JD Vance is a clear front-runner for the 2028 nomination. And so we should begin defining him — not in 2027, not in 2028 — but today.” Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk brushed off Beshear’s criticism. “Every time Andy Beshear attacks the vice president to try to get himself publicity, he ends up humiliating himself in the process, but maybe that’s something he’s into?” she said. An early foil for Democratic contenders U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California was among the first Democrats to begin focusing on Vance last year. Khanna stopped at the City Club of Cleveland and Yale University, where he and Vance studied law, and gave speeches that attempted to cast Vance as more extreme than Trump. Pennsylvan

原文链接: AP News