# JD Vance Inner Circle The **tight, trusted core** around [[JD Vance]] — the patron who made him, the operatives who built his infrastructure, and the New Right bench he runs with. This is the small inner ring; the fuller directly-connected map lives in [[JD Vance First Degree Connections]]. > Roster, not biographies. Each name links to its own page where the deep profile lives. ## The patron | Person | Role | |---|---| | [[Peter Thiel]] | Identified, employed, funded, and lobbied him into the VP slot — the single decisive figure | ## Co-founders & infrastructure builders | Person | Role | |---|---| | [[Chris Buskirk]] | Co-founded the [[Rockbridge Network]] with Vance; donor-coalition architect | | [[Nate Fischer]] | New Right organizer in the Vance orbit; Rockbridge-adjacent | ## Political & policy allies | Person | Tie | |---|---| | [[David Sacks]] | Bundled $900K for his 2022 race; co-lobbied for the VP pick | | [[Michael Kratsios]] | Thiel's ex–chief of staff; OSTP Director; policy ally | | [[Marc Andreessen]] · [[Eric Schmidt]] | Backed [[Narya Capital]]; aligned tech-policy agenda | | [[Stephen Miller]] | Co-hosted the Charlie Kirk Show segment; hardline-policy ally | | [[Leonard Leo]] | Judicial/Catholic-right network tie | ## Intellectual circle | Person | Tie | |---|---| | [[Curtis Yarvin]] | Called a "friend"; NRx influence (see [[JD Vance Ideology]]) | | [[Patrick Deneen]] | Post-liberal mentor figure; appeared together publicly | ## How to use this page vs. its neighbors - **This page** = the trusted core (patron, builders, closest allies). - [[JD Vance First Degree Connections]] = everyone directly connected, including looser ties. - [[Thiel Network]] = the patronage machine that produced him. ## See Also - [[JD Vance]] — canonical biography - [[Rockbridge Network]] · [[Thiel Network]] · [[Peter Thiel]] - [[JD Vance First Degree Connections]] - [[JD Vance Dossier]]