JD Vance and Lindsay Ratliff are only half-siblings, but you could hardly tell by looking at them. The resemblance between the two is naturally strong but made even more prominent thanks to their shared aesthetics. It looks like the glam trend sparked by Vance’s eyeliner runs in the family. Vance and his sister had a complicated childhood where stepparents, step-siblings, and half-siblings were always in and out of their lives. Ratliff was his only constant.

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In fact, Vance didn’t even know she was only a half-sister when he was growing up. “If any adjective ever preceded her introduction, it was always one of pride: ‘my full sister, Lindsay;’ ‘my whole sister, Lindsay;’ ‘my big sister, Lindsay.’ Lindsay was (and remains) the person I was proudest to know,” he wrote in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which became a 2020 Netflix film starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close. Ratliff is five years older than Vance and was, like him, raised primarily by their grandparents.

Amid the instability of his life, Ratliff became a source of security for Vance. Whenever Ratliff and Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins, became abusive, she was the one who called their “Mamaw” to come get them out of the house. “I would die for that kid. And I know he would, too,” she told Megyn Kelly in a 2017 NBC News interview, fighting back tears. Given everything they went through together, Vance and Ratliff’s bond has remained strong. And they still have a lot in common.

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In July 2023, Beverly Aikins celebrated Lindsay Ratliff’s 44th birthday with a heartfelt Facebook post. “I love you more than a simple Facebook post could ever express. My beautiful, smart, courageous, sarcastic, caring, creative daughter. I have loved you your whole life. I am beyond proud of you,” she captioned the post, which included a series of pictures. One of them featured JD Vance and Ratliff at what appeared to be a campaign event (seen above).

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With their faces close together, their striking resemblance was on full display. Most of their likeness can be seen in the pale blue eyes, made even more popping thanks to their apparent penchant for lower-lid black eyeliner. Aikins also posted photos of when they were little, showing how long the resemblance existed. Vance and Ratliff have always had the same small eyes with strong eyebrows, which they seem to have inherited from their mother.

While Vance and Ratliff’s relationship with their mother has had many ups and downs, they have forgiven her. Aikins was even by Vance’s side at his inauguration. She has been sober for a decade, helping earn her children’s trust back. Surprisingly, so did Vance’s book, which didn’t make her look good at all. But she didn’t mind because it helped them heal. “It was heartbreaking in some parts,” she told The New York Times in 2024. “But it helped us grow as a family, and it opened up a line of communication that we never really had.”

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