NEW: “JD Vance’s Past Comments About Marriage” At OC Event Come Back to Haunt Scott Baugh

Since Ohio Sen. JD Vance was picked as former President Donald Trump's running mate, he has been scrutinized for past comments, particularly about women.

And remarks he made during a 2021 event hosted by a private high school in Newport Beach have resurfaced - not just in the presidential contest, but in California's open and closely watched 47th district congressional race in Orange County as well.

Vance, not yet a senator, attended a Pacifica Christian High School event in 2021 to discuss "Hillbilly Elegy," his 2016 memoir that landed on the New York Times' bestseller list and was turned into a 2020 movie.

But it was his comments about marriage, made during a Q&A portion of the event with Keith Carlson, a trustee for the high school, that caused backlash during both Vance's successful U.S. Senate campaign and now.

Vance was asked about his upbringing, how his grandparents played a pivotal role in raising him. What's causing younger generations, he was asked, to "give up on fatherhood?"

Vance said his grandparents had "an incredibly chaotic marriage" - relatively early in his memoir, Vance details instances of domestic violence among his family, including writing that his grandmother doused her husband in gasoline while he drunkenly slept and lit him on fire - but stayed together. It was important to his grandparents, he said, not to divorce despite what he described in the book as a "violent marriage."

"This is one of the great tricks the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, is this idea that well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally - they were maybe even violent but certainly unhappy - so getting rid of them and making it easier to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that's going to make people happier in the long term," Vance said. "And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I'm skeptical, but it really didn't work out for the kids of those marriages."

Vance drew backlash for those comments, which some took to mean he felt people should stay in abusive relationships.

Controversy seeps into local congressional race

Aside from how Vance's past comments may impact this year's presidential contest, they are also playing a role in the closely watched race for California's open 47th congressional district seat between former Republican Assembly leader Scott Baugh and Democratic state Sen. Dave Min.

Baugh is a founding trustee of Pacifica Christian, which says it teaches "our students to think and live well."

"Whether he's comparing abortion access to slavery, imploring women to stay in abusive relationships, chastising Americans without children or casting himself as the poster boy of Trump's disastrous Project 2025 agenda that would harm working families, (Vance) offers no shortage of terrible takes that voters will hold against both him and his MAGA extremist friends across the country - and down the ballot - this November," said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In a statement through a spokesperson, Baugh said: "Domestic violence is never acceptable in any circumstance. I stand by victims of domestic violence and, frankly, all crime."

Min, though, said Baugh should do more to outright address Vance and his comments about women and domestic violence.

"Those comments were despicable. They are ignorant and reflect an extreme view of the role of women and women's rights that we've seen come out of the far right wing of the Republican Party," said Min.

Intimate partner violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "is a significant public health issue."

About 41% of women and 26% of men experience physical or sexual violence or stalking from an intimate partner during their lifetime, according to the CDC. Domestic violence leads to physical and emotional harm, or even death, the CDC notes.

At a 2021 event hosted by a private Newport Beach high school, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said that after the sexual revolution of the 1960s, children suffered when their parents divorced, even when the marriages were unhappy or "maybe even violent."

"This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace," Vance said. "Which is this idea that like, well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally - you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them, and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that's going to make people happier in the long term."

He added: "And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I'm skeptical. But it really didn't work out for the kids of those marriages. And I think that's what all of us should be honest about. We've run this experiment in real time and what we have is a lot of very, very real family dysfunction that's making our kids unhappy."

Vance spoke at an event hosted by Pacifica Christian High School the year before he was elected to the U.S. Senate. David O'Neil, Pacifica's head of school, confirmed to The Times that the school hosted Vance off campus as part of a community speaking series. He said the event was not a fundraiser.

"The evening was wonderful, and Mr. Vance was well received," O'Neil said.

California Democrats are trying to link Vance's comments to Republican Scott Baugh, who is running for Congress in a hotly contested coastal Orange County district that is currently represented by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine).

Baugh is on the board of trustees at Pacifica, which held the Vance event, his campaign confirmed.

Democratic state Sen. Dave Min, who is running against Baugh, described Vance's comments as "radical" and "dangerous," and called on Baugh to disavow them.

"Anyone who knows anything about domestic violence knows that what JD Vance is saying is horrific - it is ignorant, it is reprehensible," Min said in an interview.

Min's wife, a law professor at UC Irvine, directs a legal aid clinic that provides free representation to survivors of domestic violence.

When asked in 2022 whether he thought it would be better for couples in violent relationships to stay married for the sake of their children, Vance said through a spokesperson that he rejected the premise of the "bogus question."