Sofia Nelson, a 2005 Wayland High School graduate and Wayland native, was a close friend and roommate of GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance at Yale University.

Nelson, a transgender male who serves as a public defender in Detroit, insists Vance today seems very different than when he knew him two decades ago.

The Detroit Free Press has reported that Nelson was a first-year law student, out as trans, when they met a young Vance during orientation at Yale Law School. Nelson felt lucky to win acceptance to Yale, and always hoped to come home and work in the public interest. 

Nelson and Vance quickly became close friends and stayed in touch after law school, visiting each other and Nelson said they respectfully and thoughtfully debated politics and policy via email.

Nelson told the Free Press Vance was “sympathetic and empathetic, interested in robust debate underpinned by mutual respect, appalled by many of then-candidate Donald Trump’s statements and positions.”

But Vance and times have changed. Now Nelson is revealing the e-mail exchanges between the two from years ago.

Vance won a U.S. Senate seat as a Republican in 2022, representing his home state of Ohio. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, earlier this month tapped Vance as his running mate.

The Free Press reported that Luke Schroeder, a spokesman for Vance, said via email, “It’s unfortunate this individual chose to leak decade-old private conversations between friends to the New York Times. Sen. Vance values his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum. 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, Sen. Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best.”

Nelson told the Free Press, “I really liked JD. I still care about him and (wife) Usha (also part of the Yale small group). Obviously, I’m heartbroken by the transformation that they’ve decided to undergo … The JD that I got to know in law school — and it’s reflected in our correspondence after law school — was thoughtful and compassionate.

“We obviously didn’t share a common politics, but growing up in Wayland, it was nothing new to me to develop friendships and respect across the political divide.”

Nelson continued, “I certainly think that Trump is advancing a racist and dangerous agenda. But there are real concerns amongst Trump voters, many of whom I grew up with that I don’t believe that the Trump/Vance ticket is doing anything meaningful on a policy front to address those concerns. … The Democratic Party does need to take seriously the concerns of working class Rust Belt voters, and I take those concerns seriously and I serve those constituents.”

Nelson opined that what the Republican Party gets deeply wrong is those aren’t just white people.

“I grew up in the Midwest, I’ve lived in the Midwest the vast majority of my life,” Nelson said. “Working class Michiganders are LGBTQ+ people, they are immigrants, they are Black Americans. They are people of many different faiths.

“I think that to succeed in the MAGA world, you have to adopt a Trump-like persona, and that’s what he’s(Vance)  chosen to do.

“I don’t wish JD or his wife any ill. I have a lot of fond memories of the man that I knew for over a decade. But he’s now advancing a political agenda that’s trying to strip me, and the people that I love and have built community with, of our civil rights, and I felt a duty to speak out as a result. Once you try to take power and control over other people’s bodies is where I draw the line as far as friendship is concerned.

“I’m heartbroken over the way he’s changed, or the way he’s been willing to sacrifice his core values … even if I disagree with someone’s, you know, tax policy or whatever it may be, I think all Americans are served when we have leaders from both parties with integrity… The man that I knew in law school, while we had those political disagreements, I believe to be a person who valued decency and had integrity, and to see him turn his back on those things is heartbreaking.”