JD Vance, venture capitalist and author of the book-turned-movie Hillbilly Elegy, has decided to run for Senate as a GOP candidate in Ohio—and he has some very interesting ideas about whose votes should count the most.
During a recent conservative conference in Virginia hosted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), Vance stated that he believed people with children should get more votes.
Those without children, the "childless left" as he called them, should get fewer votes because they have a lower stake in the future because they don't have children of their own.
During his speech, Vance asked the leading question:
"Why is this just a normal fact of … life for the leaders of our country to be people who don't have a personal and direct stake in it via their own offspring?"
He then went on to talk about giving votes to children, via their parents being able to cast extra ballots.
"The Democrats are talking about giving the vote to 16-year-olds. Let's do this instead. Let's give votes to all children in this country, but let's give control over those votes to the parents of the children."
"When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power, you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our Democratic republic, than people who don't have kids."
Again citing his belief childless Americans have less of an "investment in the future of this country," Vance called for these people to have less of a voice at the polls.
" Let's face the consequences and the reality; if you don't have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn't get nearly the same voice."
Vance also praised a highly condemned Hungarian law introduced by strongly anti-LGBTQ+ Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The law Vance referenced is a piece of anti-gay propaganda legislation that provides financial incentives to heterosexual couples who marry and have children.
Of the law, Vance said:
"They offer loans to newly married couples that are forgiven at some point later if those couples have actually stayed together and had kids."
He then proposed the United States do something similar.
"Why can't we do that here? Why can't we actually promote family formation?"
The Washington Post's Dave Weigel shared news of Vance's comments on Twitter.
Interesting speech. Vance praised a policy by Viktor Orban that pays parents who have multiple children - "why can't we do that here?" - but didn't mention the Democrats' child tax credit.— Dave Weigel (@Dave Weigel) 1627089271
Others joined in on the lambasting of Vance in the comments.
No sharing, no compromising, no cooperation\u2026I see how you would get that.— MidgesMum \ud83e\udd13\u2615\ufe0f\ud83d\udc31\ud83d\udc31\ud83d\udc30\ud83d\udc36 (@MidgesMum \ud83e\udd13\u2615\ufe0f\ud83d\udc31\ud83d\udc31\ud83d\udc30\ud83d\udc36) 1627099894
You'll need a lot of expensive papers in order "to prevent widespread voter fraud".— Scotty (@Scotty) 1627124113
My dog's a libertarian, thinks you should just be able to poop anywhere. But who's going to pick it up? I say. And he won't admit his program only works if there's a perpetual poop-collecting class.— \ud83e\udd8eSwampLizard\ud83e\udd8e (@\ud83e\udd8eSwampLizard\ud83e\udd8e) 1627089340
It\u2019ll be illegal to give them Friskies while you\u2019re waiting in line, though\u2026— TumescentRubor (@TumescentRubor) 1627132461
While much of Twitter seemed to disagree with Vance quite vehemently, Fox And Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy fully agreed with him.
She somehow managed to bring her feelings on marijuana legalization to the conversation too.
"It is absolutely true that people like AOC, Pete Buttigieg—you can name the left-wing politicians, people who think that we should legalize marijuana because they don't have kids and they don't really have a stake in what that looks like."
She continued:
"I agree with him 100% that they don't have a stake in the game."
You can view the full discussion on Fox And Friends below.
The mother of 9 did say, while she definitely agreed with Vance's idea, she didn't think it was feasible.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social