Could JD Vance be added to the long list of Ohio's presidents?

It is entirely possible that in the years to come, Sen. JD Vance may be added to the list of Ohioans who have served as president. Currently, they are: Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William Howard Taft, William McKinley and Warren G. Harding.

Next to Virginia, no other state has produced more.

None of the seven had presidencies impactful or visionary enough to land them on Mount Rushmore. The Grant and Harding administrations were riddled with corruption, and Hayes' one-term presidency came courtesy of a backdoor deal, resulting in the nickname "His Fraudulency."

In February, U.S .News & World Report listed Harding and Harrison among the Top 10 worst.

Of the four presidents assassinated, two — Garfield and McKinley — were shot by men with severe mental illnesses who still managed to get hold of guns.

Some things don't change, do they?

Other Ohioans who have aspired to the presidency include the late Sens. Robert Taft and John Glenn, former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, former Gov. John Kasich, and current U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

In 1872, one-time Massillon resident Victoria Woodhull became the first woman ever to run for president. Frederick Douglass served as her running mate, which probably went over really well.

If ever elected, Vance would be the third president from Cincinnati, where he currently resides, so perhaps there is something to Wiedemann's beer and spaghetti drenched in chili.

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The Middletown native's 2016 best-selling book, "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," details a childhood beset by an absent father, a drug-addicted mother, poverty and the lifesaving guidance of Bonnie Blanton Vance, his maternal grandmother from Kentucky, who served as his North Star.

"Mamaw," as Blanton Vance was called, was a pistol-packing, Blue-Dog Democrat who descended from the hardscrabble Scotch-Irish rooted in Appalachia.

Vance's aspirational climb out by way of the Marines, Ohio State, Yale Law School and Silicon Valley is a reminder of what we have always said and believed about ourselves, that anyone here can make it.

About the only thing missing is a log cabin.

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However like every good saga, there's a twist. Back in 2016, Vance proudly described himself as a "Never-Trump Guy," expressing doubt about Trump's innocence amid sexual-assault allegations, and lambasting him as "America's Hitler," "cultural heroin," an imbecile who might prove useful, capped off with "My god, what an idiot."

That's more than mere "politics ain't beanbag" rhetoric. Questioning someone's intellect and morals and describing them with the "H" word is personal.

Today, when pressed on his turnabout, Vance blames the media (apparently for recording what Trump actually says), and simply replies:

"I was wrong."

Even St. Paul of Tarsus might be at a loss to explain such a dramatic conversion, but really, it's quite simple: Ambition is one hell of a drug.

Because Trump is transactional, money and the ideology needed to preserve his legacy undoubtedly were factors in deciding that a 39-year-old with two years' government experience should be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

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One of Vance's main benefactors and mentors is his former boss, billionaire venture capitalist and libertarian Peter Thiel, who donated $10 million toward his successful Senate campaign in 2022.

What's a better investment than potentially having your own president?

In 2009 , Thiel wrote that he believes democracy and freedom have become "incompatible," and that extending welfare benefits and the right to vote to women has ruined "capitalist democracy."

What could possibly go wrong?

In the months to come, Vance will talk a lot about his beginnings, which will resonate with a lot of Ohioans who already see themselves in his story; where people like Mamaw are the norm, not the the outlier.

It shouldn't have surprised anyone when Trump and his populist messaging captured Ohio twice. The Democratic Party, which once counted blue-collar voters among its base, has all but ceded this demographic in places like Ohio and Kentucky for reasons that have yet to make sense.

The glaring irony is Donald Trump wouldn't have been caught dead in Mamaw's house.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Could JD Vance be added to the long list of Ohio's presidents?