In January, Ohio senator and Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said that Heritage Foundation president and Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts “is somebody I rely on a lot who has very good advice, very good political instincts.” From NOTUS (emphasis added):
JD Vance said Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts is “somebody I rely on a lot who has very good advice”
Vance has close ties to Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation
Written by Madeline Peltz
Research contributions from Jack Wheatley
Published
This new and different energy emanating from Heritage has been well-received by many conservative members of Congress — especially advocates of the populist, nationalist style of conservatism associated with Trump. Roberts “is somebody I rely on a lot who has very good advice, very good political instincts,” Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance told me. “My overall sense of Heritage, pre-Kevin Roberts, is that it was a relatively vanilla D.C. think tank that wrote policy papers, but it didn’t engage meaningfully in some of the big debates that were happening on the right or in the country, at least for the last 10 or so years. … With Kevin, they’re participating in some of the fights that really matter on the right, not just sort of right-versus-left, but intra-Republican debates about where the party should go."
The Heritage Foundation is leading Project 2025, a far-right staffing and policy initiative backed by more than 100 conservative partner groups that seeks to remake the federal government into a vehicle for Trumpism. The proposals in the project’s policy book, Mandate for Leadership, would severely diminish reproductive, LGBTQ, and civil rights, implement draconian immigration policy, and crush climate change mitigation efforts.
The Trump campaign has attempted to distance itself from Project 2025 as it becomes increasingly toxic, in spite of numerous well-documented ties between the Trump campaign and the project. A CNN review found that there are “nearly 240 people with ties to both Project 2025 and to Trump,” and at least 140 former Trump administration staffers contributed to the project.
Vance brings his own close ties to Project 2025 and Heritage. In October 2023, Roberts and Vance wrote a joint op-ed in The Hill titled “Don’t hold up Israel aid to further Ukraine War funding.” Vance reposted the op-ed to his official Senate website.
Vance has also made multiple public appearances with Roberts. In March 2024, he spoke on a Twitter Space with Roberts, Johnny Burtka, president of Partner 2025 partner Intercollegiate Studies Institute, research director of Project 2025 partner Center for Renewing America Micah Meadowcroft, and Antonin Scalia, senior advisor at the Manhattan Institute.
During the panel, Roberts introduced Vance and described him as “one of the statesmen of our age."
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From a March 11, 2024 discussion with J.D. Vance, Johnny Burtka, and Kevin Roberts at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute previously aired on X
Vance also appeared on an ISI panel with Roberts in June 2023.
When Vance was announced as Trump’s running mate, Roberts reportedly said, “Privately, we were really rooting for him,” noting that he reacted to the news with a “broad smile.”
Vance has previously praised Heritage for its “incredible” policy work and spoken at Heritage Foundation events multiple times. On Newsmax, he said Project 2025 has “some good ideas.” Politico additionally reported that Project 2025 contributor Russ Vought is a “close ally” of Vance.
Previously unearthed videos published by Media Matters also show Trump touting his close ties to Roberts and the Heritage Foundation. In 2022, he gushed over Roberts as “so incredible.” In 2018, Trump bragged that his administration had already “implemented 64 percent” of Heritage’s recommendations, an effort that the think tank itself has also highlighted.