Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said he’s lost some friends over his support for former President Donald Trump, his running mate.

“You know, my most important message is we ought to argue, disagree about, persuade each other about politics — that’s part of the natural process,” Sen. Vance told Fox News Tuesday after he cast his ballot in Ohio. “But we can’t discard friends and we can’t discard family members.

“I think that if we all just recognize this basic principle that we oughta love people, we oughta be friends with people, we ought to be family members with people, regardless of their politics, that would do a lot to heal the division.”

He said he has had a “few” friends “who’ve cast their friendship aside because I decided that I wanted Donald J. Trump to be the winner in the last election, in this election.” He called that breakup with pals a “tragedy.”

“I’m not going to follow that example,” he said. “I’d say to everybody, whether you’re voting for Donald Trump or voting for Kamala Harris — remember, friends and family, that stuff is what really, really matters.

“We oughta be kind to one another, we oughta treat each other with respect. And fundamentally what we’re trying to do, President Trump and I, is just build the kind of country where our fellow Americans can achieve their dreams, but that’s all of our fellow Americans, regardless of who they vote for.”

Mr. Vance used to consider himself a “never Trump guy” and would even call him an “idiot” and “America’s Hitler.”

He has done a lot of explaining about those old statements since becoming Mr. Trump’s running mate.

During the vice presidential debate last month, Mr. Vance said he’s been “extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump.”