Beth Macy, author of *Dopesick*, launched her campaign for Virginia's 6th Congressional district, a coal-country region that has not elected a Democrat since 1990. Macy, 61, identifies as progressive and is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Ben Cline, who won reelection by 29 points in 2024.
When Politico asked Macy about comparisons to Vice President JD Vance, she bristled. Vance is "just kind of pontificating," she said, while she engages with "people, experts and real individuals on the ground." She added that her work as a writer came first—not as a stepping stone to political office.
Vance built his political profile on *Hillbilly Elegy*, which attributed Appalachia's struggles largely to cultural and behavioral factors. Macy's books—*Dopesick*, *Factory Man*, and her memoir *Paper Girl*—tell a different story. They center corporate malfeasance and government failure in the region's decline, drawing on reporting from rural Ohio and Appalachia where she has roots.
The contrast is sharp: Vance spent most of his childhood in Middletown, Ohio, a mid-sized city outside Appalachia, though he claims a rural Appalachian upbringing. Macy grew up in Urbana, Ohio, a small town closer to the communities she writes about.
Appalachian writer Silas House told Politico that Macy "is the opposite of JD Vance." Sociologist Shannon Anderson, a friend of Macy's, offered similar backing: "She is what JD Vance could have been."
Macy faces a steep climb. Virginia's 6th district, spanning 250 miles west of Washington and including Roanoke and Harrisonburg, is considered reliably Republican.
