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.”
I was a liberal in High School and my first year of college.
Things changed when I started working for a living and doing the math. Over years I have come to realize that at some point during gestation, unborn children are individual human beings that need protection.
People change a lot when they stop thinking like children.
Hi “McD.” I’m a 43yo liberal with the maturity to use my real name here. I did the math (subtraction) and it turns out the unborn are the *only* demographic who can’t tell trumpees to buzz off. If they could…they would as well.
I am certain you said you were done with this rag……………Interesting………
Cheers!!
How mature is it, actually, to trivialize the unborn in making yet another lame attempt to disparage people who happen to vote differently than you? How mature is it to mock someone’s honest testimony of how their thinking changed? MATURE people can respectfully disagree. The Wayland grad did a good job in expressing an opposing opinion without attacking. That is also mature.
Then there are people with severe TDS who wait by the computer for any comment (or AB’s weekly column), ready to pounce with an anti-Trump comment EVEN WHEN the article is not about Trump.
Using a pseudonym when dealing with such smug, angry people like you is not only mature but smart. I rarely comment because it’s just not worth it to deal with people who won’t meet one half-way, in a place where community should mean something. I rarely comment because of people like YOU. That is NOT a compliment.
Denise, you nailed it, very well written. Additionally in my opinion it’s quite evident, there is a lot of pent-up anger in this young man.
Cheers!!
Denise, you are giving way too much credibility to “McD” here. All of McD’s posts are chock-full of vitriol and misinformation. The comment history speaks for itself. The comment from McD here that I replied to is smug and adolescent. No amount of euphemization from you can candycoat McD as being a valid, respectable commenter.
I have no problem standing behind and standing up for my beliefs. If you have an issue with my beliefs, let’s talk about those differences. Your personal attack on me does not land here.
Mr. Gless, as with all liberal, progressive, Marxists types, the only thing they agree on is abortion, abortion, and more abortion. Sad.
The unborn have no say in what will happen to them. Abortion is now birth control when using other birth control methods are available but not used.
You are like most Democrats, one note Jonny’s and Jane’s. I too was a Democrat, but I grew up.
Really??!! Does no one else see the irony of someone who has changed their name, appearance and “gender” saying JD “today seems very different than when he knew him” 🤔
Truly, the Emperor has no clothes!
Dorrpaz, you are right on with your assessment of J.D.’s “friend”. Not much of a friend!
I believe once he saw what Trump did during his first term in office, it truly changed his viewpoint of Trump and his initiatives. He became a Trump supporter.
Biden was and is a grifter from the start of his Senate days. He has millions stashed away on the government dole and grifting other governments.