MILWAUKEE — Sen. J.D. Vance projected his working-class roots onto the stage of the Republican National Convention, debuting as vice presidential running mate to former President Donald Trump, who he said “has given everything he has to fight for the people of our country.”
Mr. Vance, 39, is a former staunch critic of Mr. Trump’s who was tapped for the No. 2 spot on the ticket in a bid to attract blue collar voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and other swing states in the rust belt.
His address was squarely aimed at this critical voting bloc, even invoking the secret stash of loaded guns owned by his grandmother, to whom he referred as his “mamaw.”
Mr. Vance, who represents Ohio in the U.S. Senate and was raised in Middleton, pledged that the Trump-Vance ticket will focus on working-class Americans and reversing the economic decline under President Biden.
“It’s about the auto worker in Michigan, wondering why out-of-touch politicians are destroying your jobs. It’s about the factory worker in Wisconsin, who makes things with their hands and is proud of American craftsmanship. It’s about the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio, who doesn’t understand why Joe Biden is willing to buy energy from tinpot dictators but not hard-working Americans right here at home,” he said.
Mr. Vance’s speech centered on the working man and woman, and wove in the story of his past, including his mother’s battle with drug addiction and how their struggles give him insight into how Mr. Biden’s policies are hurting lower-income individuals and families today.
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“Many of the people that I grew up with can’t afford to pay more for groceries, more for gas, more for rent, and that’s exactly what Joe Biden’s economy has given them. So prices soared and dreams were shattered,” he said to a packed house at the Fiserv Forum here.
Elected to the Senate in 2022, Mr. Vance had been on record criticizing Mr. Trump, even comparing him to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler at one point early in the former tycoon’s political career.
He has spent the last two years reversing those criticisms and praising the former president as someone who will “fight for the people who built this country.”
Mr. Vance said he has gotten to know Mr. Trump personally over the past few years and said Mr. Trump is running for president because the country needs him.
“He was one of the most successful businessmen in the world. He had everything anyone could ever want in life. And yet, instead of choosing the easy path. He chose to endure abuse, slander, and persecution, and he did it because he loves this country,” Mr. Vance said.
The former president’s fist-pumping exit from the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, after being shot in the ear was evidence of Mr. Trump’s love for the country, Mr. Vance said.
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“Even in his most perilous moment we were on his mind. His instinct was for us. To call us to something higher. To something greater. To once again be citizens who ask what our country needs of us,” Mr. Vance said.
Mr. Trump selected Mr. Vance as his running mate on Monday, announcing the decision on his Truth Social media site.
He called Mr. Vance,“the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States.”
He also said that in the campaign, Mr. Vance “will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.”
Mr. Vance waded into politics in 2022, winning Ohio’s vacant U.S. Senate seat best-known then as the best-selling author of a book about his experience growing up poor in Appalachia.
In “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was made into a movie, he recounted how grandmother had to wheedle with the Meals on Wheels truck for a bit of extra food on some days so both of them could eat.
On the stage at the RNC, he talked about finding 19 loaded handguns, stashed around her house after she died.
“This frail old woman made sure that no matter where she was, she was within arm’s length of whatever she needed to protect her family,” Mr. Vance said. “That’s who we fight for. That’s the American spirit.”
He talked about the impact of lethal drugs on the community he grew up in.
“As always, America’s ruling class wrote the checks, communities like mine pay the price,” he said.
Mr. Vance’s mother, sober for nearly 10 years, was in the audience. She received a standing ovation and said “that’s my boy” to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was sitting next to her.
Mr. Vance said Mr. Trump’s vision for a future centered on building success in America.
He barely discussed foreign policy but said a Trump-Vance White House would “send our kids to war only if we must,” but, “when we punch, we’re going to punch hard.”
Mr. Vance promised, “I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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