He scolded the party for being “openly hostile to non-whites” and “alienating Blacks, Latinos, [and] the youth,” which he argued was the reason the party lost the two consecutive elections in 2008 and 2012 to Barack Obama.

The post appeared on a non-partisan site, Center for World Conflict and Peace, run by his former professor during undergrad at Ohio State University, Brad Nelson, which Vance contributed to after graduating.

Four years later during the 2016 election, Vance asked Nelson to remove the post after he decided to get involved in politics.

The same year, his bestselling memoir-turned-movie, Hillbilly Elegy, which weaved anecdotes into a tough-love tale about his upbringing in the Rust Belt-Appalachian region of the country, was released.

Nelson told CNN he agreed to remove the post to help Vance more easily enter the political scene, though his article, titled “A Blueprint for the GOP,” is still available to read on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Nelson, who referred to Vance as one of his brightest students, explained Vance told him his post had “ruffled some feathers in some campaigns” he hoped to get involved in.

“I was a bit surprised at the blowback he apparently received from the GOP, as I thought his post was fairly innocuous,” Nelson told CNN. “Anyway, I liked JD and wanted to help him out, and so I went ahead and deleted his post.”

Nelson added: “He didn’t suggest that his thinking on the topics he wrote about in his post had changed.”

Vance’s blog post reads: “A significant part of Republican immigration policy centers on the possibility of deporting 12 million people (or ‘self-deporting’ them).

“Think about it: we conservatives (rightly) mistrust the government to efficiently administer business loans and regulate our food supply, yet we allegedly believe that it can deport millions of unregistered aliens.

“The notion fails to pass the laugh test. The same can be said for too much of the party’s platform.”

Now, 12 years later, Vance has climbed the political ladder to the potential second highest seat in office and has done so by appearing to change his tone.

In an effort to explain his flip-flop, he said Sunday: “The reason that I changed my mind on Donald Trump

is actually perfectly highlighted by what’s going on in Springfield.

“Because the media and the Kamala Harris campaign, they’ve been calling the residents of Springfield racist, they’ve been lying about them.

“They’ve been saying that they make up these reports of migrants eating geese, and they completely ignore the public health disaster that is unfolding in Springfield at this very minute.”

He added: “You know who hasn’t ignored it? Donald Trump.”

Will Martin, a spokesman for Vance, said Vance is a long-time supporter of border security measures, including deportations, though admits Vance’s stance on deportation has changed.

Vance also offered a heavy-handed critique of the Republican Party’s strategies and candidates as the reason for failing to win the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

“When the 2008 election was called for Obama, I remember thinking: maybe this will teach my party some very important lessons,” Vance wrote. “You can’t nominate people, like Sarah Palin, who scare away swing voters.

“You can’t actively alienate every growing bloc of the American electorate—Blacks, Latinos, the youth—and you can’t depend solely on the single shrinking bloc of the electorate—Whites.

“And yet, four years later, I am again forced to reflect on a party that nominated the worst kind of people, like Richard Mourdock, and tried to win an election by appealing only to White people.”

His post concluded with a call to action for the GOP to adjust for the country’s changing demographics, including in its supply-side economic policies, which he compared to Soviet containment.

He wrote: “Republicans lose minority voters for simple and obvious reasons: their policy proposals are tired, unoriginal, or openly hostile to non-whites.”