It’s been a challenging week for JD Vance, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul didn’t exactly help on Thursday when she responded to a repeated error by the vice president with two sentences of snark.
Vance attacked LiPetri’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Thomas Suozzi, by telling attendees, “he doesn’t represent you, he represents her,” referring to Hochul, whom he incorrectly called “Katie.”
Politico reporter Jason Beeferman noted on social media that Vance called Hochul “Katie” at least twice during his speech.
Hochul was happy to deftly correct Vance about his mistake.
“It’s still Kathy,” she said in response to Beeferman’s post. “Not everyone changes their name every year.”
Vance was born James Donald Bowman, but his mother renamed him “James David Hamel” when he was 6 and adopted by his then-stepdad, Robert Hamel.
He changed his last name to “Vance,” the last name of the grandmother who raised him, in 2013, and dropped the periods from the initials “J” and “D” in 2021, when he first ran for public office.