If you spent any time on the internet during the 2024 election cycle, you definitely saw the memes, the frantic tweets, and the 900-page PDF that everyone talked about but almost nobody actually read. I’m talking about Project 2025. And specifically, the question that keeps popping up in political circles and family dinners: did JD Vance help write Project 2025?
It’s one of those things that sounds like a simple yes or no, but the reality is way more tangled.
Politics is rarely about a smoking gun. It's more about a web of connections, shared dinners, and mutual friends in high places. When people ask if Vance "wrote" it, they’re usually looking for his name on the byline of the "Mandate for Leadership." Spoilers: It isn't there. But honestly, that’s only about 10% of the story.
The Paper Trail and the Heritage Connection
To get to the bottom of the did JD Vance help write Project 2025 rumor, you have to look at the Heritage Foundation. This is the think tank that basically "owns" the project. Vance has never tried to hide the fact that he’s close with them. He’s spoken there. He’s praised them. He’s even said that under their current leader, Kevin Roberts, the foundation went from being a "vanilla" think tank to a real fighting force.
But let's be super clear about the authorship.
The "Mandate for Leadership"—the actual 922-page book that people call Project 2025—was written by a massive list of contributors. We’re talking over 400 people. Many of them were former Trump administration officials. JD Vance, however, was a sitting U.S. Senator at the time. He wasn't one of the chapter authors.
So, in a literal, "did he sit down and type out the policy on the Department of Education" sense? No. He didn't.
However, the "but" here is pretty big.
The Foreword that Changed Everything
The biggest piece of evidence people point to isn't in the Project 2025 manual itself. It’s in a book called Dawn’s Early Light by Kevin Roberts.
Vance wrote the foreword for it.
Now, Kevin Roberts isn't just some guy; he’s the president of the Heritage Foundation and the literal architect of Project 2025. In that foreword, Vance didn't just write a polite "good job" blurb. He went deep. He called the Heritage Foundation the "most influential engine of ideas" for the Republican party. He used some pretty intense imagery, too, talking about how it's time to "circle the wagons and load the muskets."
That’s not exactly the language of someone who barely knows what the group is doing.
Why the Confusion Still Exists
If you ask the Trump-Vance campaign, they’ll tell you Project 2025 has nothing to do with them. Vance himself told CNN’s Dana Bash that the project is not affiliated with the campaign. He’s even said he has "plenty of disagreements" with some of the specific ideas in there.
But then you have the opposition.
The Harris-Walz campaign made a massive point of linking the two. Tim Walz famously said Vance "literally wrote the foreword for the architect" of the agenda. And technically? He’s right. When you write the introduction for the guy who built the plan, and you call his ideas an "essential weapon," the line between "author" and "supporter" gets very, very thin.
Real Connections vs. Campaign Rhetoric
- Personnel: Many of Vance's former staffers and close political allies worked directly on Project 2025.
- Ideology: Vance's views on "Schedule F"—a plan to make it easier to fire federal employees—align almost perfectly with the Project 2025 blueprint.
- The 2017 Report: Mother Jones and The New York Times found a 2017 report from Heritage where Vance did write an introduction. That report touched on many of the same social issues—abortion, IVF, family structure—that eventually became core pillars of the 2025 agenda.
It’s like saying you didn't cook the meal, but you helped write the cookbook, you’re best friends with the chef, and you've been seen eating at the restaurant every Tuesday for years.
What Most People Get Wrong
People love a conspiracy. They want to believe Vance was in a smoke-filled room in 2022 plotting out every line of the project.
The truth is more boring but maybe more significant: Vance represents the movement that birthed Project 2025. He is the personification of the "New Right." This group believes the old way of doing things—just getting the government out of the way—is dead. They want an "offensive conservatism" that uses the government to achieve their goals.
Whether he physically typed the words "Project 2025" onto a Word doc matters less than the fact that his political DNA is all over the philosophy.
🔗 Read more: Lord Kitchener and why Your Country Needs You still defines modern propaganda
Actionable Insights: How to Verify These Claims Yourself
If you’re trying to navigate the noise, don’t just take a TikToker’s word for it. Here is how you can actually check the facts:
- Check the Author List: You can download the full "Mandate for Leadership" PDF. Use Ctrl+F to search for "Vance." You won't find him as an author, but you will find his name in the context of his public speeches and political stances referenced by others.
- Read the Foreword: You can find the leaked text of Vance’s foreword for Dawn’s Early Light online (it was published by The New Republic). Read it for yourself. See if you think it sounds like an endorsement of the Project 2025 worldview.
- Watch the Interviews: Look for Vance’s August 2024 interview with CNN or his appearances on Meet the Press. He explicitly tries to draw a line between "Trump’s agenda" and "Heritage’s agenda."
The debate over did JD Vance help write Project 2025 isn't going away. It’s part of a much larger conversation about who actually runs the government and where the ideas come from. While he isn't a "writer" in the technical sense, he is undeniably one of the most prominent boosters of the people and the philosophy that made the project possible.
Moving forward, keep an eye on executive orders. If the administration starts checking off items from that 900-page list, the question of who "wrote" it won't matter nearly as much as who is actually signing the papers.