JD Vance showed little regret at the time, but in his new memoir the Vice President says his “childless cat lady” remark was among the “dumbest” things he has ever said.
The admission appears in Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, Vance’s latest book and the follow-up to his 2016 bestseller Hillbilly Elegy, the memoir that made him a national figure and launched his political rise.
Over the span of a decade, Vance has gone from debut author to Vice President.
During his first run for the U.S. Senate in 2021, Vance told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson that “childless cat ladies” such as Vice President Kamala Harris were harming the country.
He also said Harris — who has two stepchildren — was part of a group of childless Democrats “who want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
The comment resurfaced repeatedly during Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign, which ended with his victory over Democratic Representative Tim Ryan in his first bid for elected office that November.
The comment came back to haunt Vance almost immediately following President Donald Trump’s July 2024 announcement that he wanted the Ohio senator to join him on the presidential ticket after Trump’s falling out with his original Vice President, Mike Pence.
‘One of the dumbest things I ever said came when I argued that ‘childless cat ladies’ across the Democrat Party were running our country into the ground,’ Vance conceded on the pages of Communion, according to NBC News.
Vice President JD Vance writes in his forthcoming book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, that he now regrets the callous ‘childless cat ladies’ comment he made in 2021 about Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic women
In the book, Vice President JD Vance recalls how the comment almost immediately got dredged back up once President Donald Trump (left) announced Vance would be on the 2024 presidential ticket. Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vance and Usha Vance at the 2024 RNC
‘The comment caused two firestorms: the first when I made it, the second years later during a political campaign,’ the VP continued. ‘It was a boneheaded comment, intentionally (and successfully) provocative rather than illuminating.’
The quip got so big that singer Taylor Swift used it to sign off on her September 2024 endorsement of Harris’s presidential campaign.
A month before, during an interview on Meet the Press, Vance said he did have ‘a lot of regrets.’
‘But making a joke three years ago is not at the top 10 of the list,’ he said.
In the book, Vance sings a different tune.
‘And that brings me to another lesson of the faith for Christian statesmen,’ Vance wrote. ‘It’s OK to admit error.’
He called the viral comment ‘enraging’ because it ‘had the added benefit of distracting from the actual point I wanted to make, which was that our society is becoming pathologically hostile to having kids.’
Vance added that he ‘could have made that point much more effectively, and with the benefit of showing a little charity to the many Americans who – some for reasons beyond their control – don’t have children.’
Vice President JD Vance (right) stands alongside outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris (center right) on inauguration day 2025. He wrote in his new book that he regretted labeling Harris and other Democratic women ‘childless cat ladies’
‘When I consider the Church’s admonition to respect the dignity of every life, this was a clear moment where I failed,’ Vance wrote.
Communion is largely about Vance’s spiritual journey from Protestant to atheist to converted Catholic.
It comes as Trump has been publicly floating who would be a better heir in 2028 – Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who ran against the President for the Republican nomination in 2016.
Possible presidential candidates often write books ahead of launching their campaigns, with possible Democratic 2028 hopefuls, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, releasing books in recent months.
At the same time, sources told the Daily Mail that Vance may be rethinking what always looked like a definite White House bid in two years.
During an interview with CBS Sunday Morning promoting the book, Vance said he would wait to discuss 2028 with Usha, who is pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, until after the November midterms.
In 2022, Trump – at the time an ex-President – launched his third bid for the White House just a week after the midterms wrapped up, the earliest announcement in presidential history.
