With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Payne Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here! Have a tip? Email us at transitiontips@politico.com. Whether Democrats hang onto the Senate majority in next year’s midterms election could come down to one of White House chief of staff RON KLAIN’s old colleagues. J.D. VANCE , the bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” is considering running for retiring Republican Sen. ROB PORTMAN’s Senate seat in Ohio — one of nine or so races that could determine the Senate majority. Until recently, Vance also worked with Klain at Revolution, a Washington investment firm. Klain was Revolution’s executive vice president and general counsel before stepping down in November; Vance, a former partner at the firm, left his role as an adviser in December. The two former colleagues are now at odds over President JOE BIDEN’s infrastructure proposal. Vance has derided Biden’s plan to spend $225 billion on child care for working parents, arguing that it will lead to “unhappier, unhealthier children.” He’s also seemingly mocked press coverage of Biden as overly fawning. “We have a border crisis, inflation, and gas shortages in Florida, but what's really important is that the president is nice on Twitter,” he tweeted on Tuesday. The White House declined to comment on Vance’s criticisms. Klain and Vance came to Revolution in similar ways: They were star hires made by STEPHEN CASE , the former chairman and chief executive of America Online who co-founded Revolution. Klain worked as a lawyer for AOL after leaving the Clinton administration, and “got to be very friendly with Steve,” Klain recalled in an interview last year with the investor SCOTT DORSEY, who has also invested in Vance’s venture capital fund. Case tried to recruit Klain to come to Revolution when he started the firm in 2004, but Klain turned him down, convinced that his work for JOHN KERRY’s presidential campaign would lead to a job in the White House. Late on election night, he got a call. “It was Steve Case at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Klain said. “He says, ‘Hey, Ron. Steve Case. I don’t think you’re going to work in the White House. I haven’t filled your job. Come to work for me at Revolution.’ And I accepted on the spot.” A person who worked with Klain at Revolution said Klain grew close with Case and became something of a consigliere to him. In 2017, after the success of “Hillbilly Elegy” — particularly among white liberals trying to understand why DONALD TRUMP won the White House — Case recruited Vance to come work for him, calling him “a leading voice for people across the country who feel left behind.” Together, the two of them toured the Midwest by bus seeking investment opportunities, “holding entrepreneurship competitions as if they were politicians on the campaign trail,” as The New York Times put it. Klain tagged along at Case and Vance’s 2017 stop in his hometown, Indianapolis. The firm ultimately launched a “Rise of the Rest” fund, which attracted investments from JEFF BEZOS, the Koch and Priztker families and other bold-faced names. Vance split his time between Ohio and Washington while working for Revolution, and it doesn’t appear that he and Klain were especially close. The two of them had a cordial, professional relationship but didn’t socialize or hang out after leaving the office, according to a person familiar with their interactions. And it wasn’t hard to avoid talking politics at Revolution. “I spent a lot of time in Revolution’s offices from 2010 to 2015,” said MARK WALSH , a former colleague of Case’s who served on the boards of two companies Revolution had invested in. “I don’t recall politics ever being a topic — only business, ventures, sports and collegial banter.” Case hadn’t spoken to Vance recently, according to a person familiar with the matter. But Vance’s work for Case might have made his campaign a little easier if he does run. Part of Vance’s work at Revolution included calling up potential investors, including “anybody that Steve Case knew,” Walsh said. “Those calls were probably very productive if and when J.D. decides to raise money for a political campaign, since those people now know who he is.” | 
