One of the things that drew me to endorse early a young, first-time U.S. Senate candidate from Ohio, JD Vance, was a sense of shared understanding and passion for the typical struggling family. Vance, now vice president, told his moving family story in his 2016 bestselling book (also a popular Ron Howard Netflix film) Hillbilly Elegy. To read the vice president’s moving account was to relive many of the struggles I saw growing up as a preacher’s kid among the mountains of Appalachia. Those experiences never leave you.

It wasn’t surprising, then, to see then-Sen. Vance gravitate toward policies aimed at lifting the family. One of the policies he quickly embraced as a senator was expanding and making permanent the child tax credit, something the organization I lead, Concerned Women for America, has also strongly supported. The reason is simple: A strong America depends on strong families…

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