On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign took a swipe at Sen. JD Vance by sending him a Trump-style “happy birthday” message for his 40th birthday.
Last month, former President Donald Trump selected Vance as his vice presidential running mate, but the launch has been rocky. Vance, who became the first VP pick since 2000 to emerge from his party’s convention with a negative favorability rating, saw his standing deteriorate further, dropping to a -15 rating the following week.
Democrats have highlighted Vance’s controversial remarks about “childless cat ladies” and other childless Americans, whom he suggested have less stake in the country. Vance has also proposed giving parents an extra vote for each child they have.
On Friday evening, the Harris campaign tweeted a birthday message to the 40-year-old former venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy:
“At 78 and 40, Donald Trump and his sidekick, the most unpopular VP pick in American history, are running on an agenda to drag our country backwards, reverse the progress we’ve made, and ensure Americans have fewer freedoms in the next generation than they had in the last.”
The message added: “Voters won’t stand for it, and it’s why they’re already rejecting the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda to rip away our freedoms, jack up costs on the middle class, and fan the flames of hatred and division. While we wish JD a happy 40th, the American people will make certain that he celebrates his 41st anywhere but the White House.”
Earlier in the week, Vance had labeled Harris “a chameleon” in an interview, claiming she alters her persona based on her audience.
“Kamala Harris is a chameleon,” he told CNN. “She goes to Georgia two days ago. She was raised in Canada, she puts on a fake southern accent. She is everything to everybody and she pretends to be somebody different depending on which audience she’s in front of.”
Notably, Vance had previously been a staunch critic of Trump, once likening him to “America’s Hitler.”