This from the Intercept:
J.D. Vance wants voters to think of him as a rags-to-riches Appalachian kid who believes in small-town values and working-class populism.
But to understand the real J.D. Vance, you have to follow the money — and the money leads directly to Silicon Valley billionaires like Peter Thiel.
Thiel hired Vance at his venture capital firm after Vance graduated from Yale Law School, then poured $15 million into Vance’s successful campaign for the U.S. Senate. He was also among the strongest voices pushing Donald Trump to pick Vance as his running mate.
So why is Peter Thiel so enamored with J.D. Vance? And what do tech moguls expect to get in return for acting as Vance’s political patrons?
Peter Thiel made his fortune as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and an early investor in Facebook. In the Trump era, he has emerged as a major right-wing political funder, spending $35 …