Middletown to host ribbon cutting for JD Vance road signs with his family
Vice President JD Vance's family is expected to celebrate his new street signs in Middletown, Ohio on Saturday.
The city is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a sign on Cincinnati-Dayton Road and Vance's family will attend, a Facebook page for the event says.
Vance's mom, Beverly Aikins, asked the city to recognize her son at a Middletown City Council meeting in December. Aikins, and several of Vance's other relatives, still live in Middletown, where he was born and raised.
"I am just here because I am JD Vance's mother and as you know he is our new vice president-elect and he thinks of Middletown as his home," she said at the time. "I still live here and his sister still lives in Middletown. He's got two nieces who live here and I just think it would be really nice if we could acknowledge that this is his hometown and put up some signs."
A few other residents and council members at the meeting also called for signs, but not everyone was on board. Councilwoman Jennifer Carter, who previously told The Enquirer she doesn't like Vance's policies, was against putting up the signs.
City officials granted the request for signs this month.
The new signs read "Hometown of J.D. Vance, 50th Vice President of the United States of America" and are installed at these locations:
Central Avenue and Carmody Boulevard.
Ohio Route 4 and Germantown Road, near the Middletown Regional Airport.
Ohio Route 73 at the Middletown city limits.
Ohio Route 122 and Interstate 75.
Ohio Route 4 and Lafayette Avenue.
South Main Street at the city limits.
Cincinnati-Dayton Road at the city limits.
Vance graduated from Middletown High School in 2003. He wrote about his turbulent upbringing and his mother's struggles with substance use in "Hillbilly Elegy."
The best-selling memoir went on to inspire a Netflix movie in 2020. Vance was played by Owen Asztalos and his mom was portrayed by Amy Adams.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: JD Vance's family, Ohio hometown celebrate his road signs
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