5 Excerpts From JD Vance’s Emails to a Transgender Classmate

As Senator JD Vance seeks the vice presidency, a former Yale Law School classmate and friend has shared about 90 of their emails and text messages, mostly from 2014 through 2017, with The New York Times.

The emails add to an existing body of evidence showing how Mr. Vance pivoted from a strong opponent of former President Donald J. Trump to his running mate. They also provide an insight into a cultural willingness by Mr. Vance to accept his classmate, Sofia Nelson, who is transgender.

Nelson, now a public defender in Detroit, said the two were once close friends, but had a falling out in 2021, when Mr. Vance said publicly that he supported an Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Now, Nelson, who opposes the Trump-Vance ticket, hopes the emails will inform the opinion of voters about Mr. Vance.

In response, a spokesman for the Vance campaign said in a statement that it was “unfortunate” for someone to share “decade-old private conversations between friends.”

“Senator Vance values his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum,” the statement said. “He has been open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to change after becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best.”

Here are five revealing exchanges in their correspondence:

Oct. 23, 2014

‘I hate the police.’

In October 2014, in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown, a Black 18-year-old, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., Nelson raised the idea of requiring that police officers wear body cameras.