WASHINGTON, D.C. — JD Vance, the author of the acclaimed book ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ is now trying his hand at politics by entering Ohio’s 2022 U.S. Senate race.

Vance ended up on the national stage after his 2016 memoir, about his rural Ohio upbringing, became a bestseller and was adapted into a Hollywood movie.

Last week, back in his hometown of Middletown, Vance took to a new stage by entering the race to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman.

“I think that my basic strategy here is just to be a real guy who talks about real issues and doesn't repeat the same old slogans,” Vance told Spectrum News in an interview on Thursday.

Vance explained that he’s running because he felt no one else in the crowded Republican primary field can represent “normal people” like he can.

“The fact that the economic conditions in our country are not great for a lot of middle class people is actually intimately related to the fact that a lot of our leadership class is actually attacking core values of the American nation,” Vance said.

But Vance’s journey — from Middletown to Yale to the world of venture capital — is anything but “normal.”

He’s now introducing, or in some cases reintroducing, himself to Ohio voters as a candidate.

Part of that process includes making clear he fully supports former President Donald Trump, despite not voting for Trump in 2016.

CNN recently published now-deleted tweets from Vance back then, in which he called Trump “reprehensible” and said he was fighting him “aggressively.”

Vance now says Trump won him over while in office.

“I think it's important for thinking people to change their mind when new information comes to light,” Vance told Spectrum News.

When asked about Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, Vance called the election unfair.

“I think that the Democrats have done much more damage to Americans’ confidence in our elections than Donald Trump or any Republican has done,” Vance said.

So far, Vance is using the early days of his campaign to criticize the big tech industry, even as tech billionaire Peter Thiel pumps millions into his Senate bid.

Vance said it’s not a contradiction because Thiel supports the same causes he does, including breaking up aspects of big tech.

“I can't rely on my husband or wife or my dad to fund my campaign,” Vance said. “I've got to go out there and tell supporters what I'm about, what I believe in, and get them to buy into my campaign.”

Vance plans to focus on bringing manufacturing jobs back to Ohio and addressing the southern border crisis.

Though he’s only 36 and has never held elected office, he said he feels ready to go to Washington.

“Certainly political experience can be valuable,” Vance said. “But at the end of the day, you need people who have the right ideas, who have the right beliefs, who have the right principles, and can actually stand up and defend those principles in the court of public opinion. I think I’m as well equipped to do that as anybody in the Senate.”