J.D. Vance’s nomination as the Republican vice presidential nominee in the upcoming election provides an interesting contrast. On the one hand, today’s Republican Party embraces a great deal of populism. It’s common for Republican politicians to blame elites who turn against ordinary people. On the other hand, if you look at the younger generation of Republican leaders, the politicians who are likely to lead the party in the next few years, there are certainly a lot of graduates of Harvard Law School and Yale Law School.
JD Vance is an example. He is a 2013 graduate of Yale Law School. Among them is Senator Joshua Hawley, a 2006 graduate of Yale Law School. We have Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a 2005 Harvard Law School graduate (a bit of a crossover, since he went to Yale for college). There is also Senator Ted Cruz, a 1995 Harvard Law School graduate who attended Princeton University after college. and Senator Tom Cotton, a 2002 Harvard Law School graduate.
It seems worth asking how the Republican Party received Both Populism and A group of luminaries, at least among the younger generation, who are graduates of Harvard Law School and Yale Law School? Or more specifically, why does attending elite law schools seem to be a significant advantage within the Republican Party?
One answer might be that this is not a story specifically about Republicans at all. Surely a lot of Democratic leaders have been to these places! If you think about it, it’s kind of disgusting. If you look at the past eight presidential elections, six of the eight Democratic presidential candidates graduated from Harvard Law School or Yale Law School. (In case you’re wondering: Harvard Law School’s Michael Dukakis was the unsuccessful nominee in 1988; Yale Law School’s Bill Clinton was the successful nominee in 1992 and 1996; Harvard Law School’s Barack · Obama was the successful nominee in 2008 and 2012; Hillary Clinton of Yale Law School was the unsuccessful nominee in 2016. Perhaps the advantage of elite law school graduates in politics is for both parties. Equally. Alternatively, smart and ambitious young people planning political careers may know this and aim for such schools.
perhaps.
But I suspect there are other factors at play. It amazes me how few conservatives there are at Harvard, Yale, and other “top” law schools. It’s one thing for a school where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans to produce many future Democratic leaders. It’s another thing that they produced so many future Republican leaders. It seems to me that the likelihood that politically ambitious conservatives from elite law schools will actually become big players in American politics is unusually high, which is all the more remarkable given the populist turn of the Republican Party.
What could explain this? I have no idea. I’m curious what explanation you might have. But let me offer three possibilities, just to start the conversation:
(1) There is an inside track of lawyers at play in Republican politics (eg: Cruz and Cotton). In some cases, these individuals appear to have assumed the role of elite party lawyers before running for office—using this legal role as key conservative credentials in subsequent political campaigns.
Ted Cruz did this. He clerked on the Supreme Court, served in the Bush administration, and practiced law in Washington, D.C., before being appointed deputy attorney general in his home state of Texas in 2003 by then-Attorney General Greg Abbott. This was only eight years after Cruz graduated from law school. He then tried a series of cases before the Supreme Court as the state’s deputy attorney general, in which he represented Texas on the conservative side. Ted then used his work as a Supreme Court lawyer as key credentials for conservatives running for the Senate in 2012.
The same goes for Josh Hawley’s path to the Senate. After clerking at the Supreme Court and doing some internships, Hawley returned to his home state of Missouri and became a law professor at the University of Missouri, where he also helped conservatives litigate Supreme Court cases. From there, he ran for state attorney general and won the race just ten years after graduating from law school. He won a Senate seat after just two years as state attorney general. In the cases of Cruz and Hawley, both used their academic credentials and legal experience as key arguments for their candidates. Their legal efforts on behalf of conservative causes before the U.S. Supreme Court clearly resonated with many voters.
(2) Elite law school graduates give the impression of being battle-hardened. Another explanation, more specifically about populism, is that populist conservative voters are happy to vote for conservative graduates of elite law schools because attending these schools gives conservative politicians a kind of veteran status of their own. Politicians running for Republican office don’t like to talk about their time at these schools. Instead, they view their experience at Harvard Law School or Yale Law School as a tough test of their own strength to pass. They spent three years in the liberal trenches and finally emerged victorious. They are now battle-hardened and ready to take on liberals when they hold political office. From this perspective, graduating from these schools is not a problem. Rather, like medals on military uniforms, it is a certificate.
(3) Add credentials from an elite law school to military service for a powerful combination (ex: Vance, DeSantis, Cotton). I’m not too confident about this, so maybe it’s completely wrong. But speaking of military uniforms, it’s hard not to notice that several of the politicians are also veterans. JD Vance served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 and, as I understand it, primarily worked as a journalist and public affairs specialist. Tom Cotton served in the Army as an active duty officer from 2005 to 2009, including leading an air assault infantry platoon in Iraq. Ron DeSantis joined the Navy in 2004 and served as a Navy attorney until retiring in 2010.
Military service and attending a top law school are very rare these days (unfortunately). But that combination may be part of the political appeal here. Maybe adding credentials from an elite law school to military service could actually work well, especially in a Republican primary. It combines patriotism and bookishness, physical strength and intelligence. Not sure about this, but maybe this combination is at least part of the political power.
