'Truly Heartbreaking': J.D. Vance Is Not the Same Person His Friends Used to Know, Says Former Law School Pal

Former President Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, was allegedly a more accepting person before he went into politics.

Sofia Nelson, a public defender in Detroit, a graduate of Yale Law School and a former close friend of Vance, revealed in an interview that the GOP's VP nominee lived a very different lifestyle when they were going to school to become lawyers.

"J.D. and I were in the same small group in law school. So, we met during orientation in the fall of 2010. It was a very diverse group of hardworking and smart people. We became quite close," Nelson revealed. "I still care about J.D. and his wife and his family. But I am a transgender person living in the Midwest."

"I am living in a community that houses the largest Muslim population in the United States. I'm living in the Blackest city, over 100,000 people in America. I represent people struggling with addiction, mental health and poverty," she continued. "And the person that J.D. Vance has become and the issues that he is pushing threaten to strip me of my civil liberties and members of my community."

Nelson revealed that she felt like she "had a duty to speak out" so voters could make an "informed decision" in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

"Given that he's one of the culture warriors leading an attack against trans children, as a transgender person who has privilege and a supportive family and community, I felt like I needed to speak out on behalf of those kids and let them know that the J.D. Vance that I knew doesn't hate them. He's not scared of them," she explained. "Unfortunately, he's just chosen a path of political opportunism to amass wealth and power."

Vance is known these days for being a far-right politician who is religiously devoted to Trump and the MAGA agenda. He's expressed his opposition to marriage equality, abortion — including in cases of abuse and incest — and he's aimed to criminalize gender-affirming care for minors.

Despite teaming up with Trump, several emails of Vance's have leaked showing he previously called the ex-president a "morally reprehensible human being" and labeling him "America's Hitler."

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As OK! previously reported, Vance has faced a lot of pushback in recent days over years-old comments he made about the Democratic party being run by "childless cat ladies" and claiming adults without children "don't really have a direct stake" in the future of the U.S.

Many of the senator's biggest critics have called the Trump VP "sociopathic," "deranged," "out of touch" and most famously of all, "weird."

NPR interviewed Nelson about their history with Vance.