JD Vance's Younger Brother Cory Has Everyone Saying The Same Shady Thing

By Tessa Hayley Hellberg
JD Vance at a cabinet meeting. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

"Hillbilly Elegy" saw JD Vance share the story of his and his sister's tragic childhood, but some may not know that he has a half-brother on his dad's side, too. That would be Cory Bowman, Cincinnati mayoral hopeful ... and as some have pointed out, Vance's mini-me. 

Though Bowman certainly isn't a frontrunner at the time of this writing (in fact, per BBC he only won 13% of the primary vote), he also hasn't hidden the fact that his brother is the VP. Bowman used the Cincinnati mayoral debate to, "Address the elephant in the room" — but let's just say, his attempts at doing that ended up backfiring. Though Bowman seemed to want to say he wasn't piggybacking off his brother's success, he ended up gushing over all the things Vance had accomplished. Unsurprisingly, the internet was not impressed. "Wat's up with this 'my sibling ran for office so I'm qualified' rubbish," questioned one X user. "He's running on the clout of his brother's name. He thinks that's all he needs to win," chimed another. 

"So, being a jerk runs in JD's family, eh?" one critic wrote. That was a sentiment shared by others as well (albeit with stronger language). And then, there were those who noticed some shared physical attributes between the half-brothers. That would be how their eyes just seem to, "Pop." "Ah the Maybelline brothers," an X user chirped. TBH, at least Bowman's makeup was a little less messy than some of Vance's past eyeliner mishaps. 

Cory is all-in on his nepo sibling status

Cory Bowman posing with his brother JD Vance and nephew Vivek Vance. @cory.bo/Instagram

There have been a number of occasions when Bowman has brought it up his brother. For one, there was his Local 12 interview: "We knew without a doubt that that was going to be the headlines ... that JD Vance's brother was going to run for mayor," he told the outlet. Of course, he didn't exactly avoid the comparisons, going on to say that he wanted to leverage the attention to get more focus on the election itself. Granted, he's also said several times that he wants to keep the focus on local issues rather than national politics, so we're not entirely sure which he'd prefer (and TBH, we don't think he is, either). Don't worry, though: speaking to WOSU Public Media, he volunteered the statement, "As far as the relationship with JD, I tell people he's my brother ... He is not somebody that planted me here in this city."

Unfortunately for Bowman, many of his interviewers have brought more attention to the nepo sibling charges. "Good Morning America" alum Elizabeth Vargas asked about the pros and cons of being a half-brother to the VP, and threw out a subtle barb, during a NewsNation interview. "You're on this show because, you know, you're his brother, let's be honest," Vargas said. To his credit, Bowman nodded in agreement. Even so, this is one political celebrity sibling we wouldn't file under the "Hates the spotlight" label. 

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