JD Vance leaned heavily on his Ohio roots in his long-awaited speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, describing how his upbringing — what he called his own “American Dream” — made him the right man to take on the Republican Party. Donald Trump on the 2024 Republican nomination.
“I never imagined I would be standing here tonight. I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved God, family, community, and country with all their hearts,” Vance said, “but it was also a place that was abandoned by America’s ruling class in Washington.”
This sentiment dominated Vance’s speech—a recounting of his childhood interrupted by “out-of-touch politicians” who made things worse. He blamed President Joe Biden“Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price,” Vance said. Vance used a populist tone throughout the speech, accusing those in power of neglecting communities like his, alluding to trade policies like NAFTA and the Iraq War. (Although as Washington Post‘S Aaron Blake (Vance is also notably supportive of Trump’s economic agenda, including extending the former president’s 2017 tax cuts, the benefits of which, New York Times noted this week, “disproportionate accumulation for the rich.”
Michael TylerBiden-Harris campaign communications director, called Vance “the poster boy for Project 2025,” a progressive conservative plan to remake government. While Vance “took center stage” on Wednesday, he said, “working families and the middle class will suffer if he is allowed to stay.”
“Backed by Silicon Valley and the billionaires who bought his vice presidential candidacy, Vance is Project 2025 in human form—an agenda that puts extremism and the super-rich above our democracy,” Tyler added.
Trump unveiled the 39-year-old senator as his vice presidential running mate on Monday as the RNC kicked off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just days after a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Before the suspect was identified or a motive was determined, Vance was quick to blame the shooting on Joe Biden and the Democrats he served with in Congress.
“The core premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote on X. “That rhetoric leads directly to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
Vance reiterated his comments in a speech on Wednesday, saying Trump had endured “abuse, vilification and oppression.”
“Look at what they say, they say he’s a tyrant, they say he must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said. “Look at the lies they tell you about Donald Trump, and look at that picture of him defiant, his fist in the air.”
Before running for office, Vance was best known for his best-selling memoir, The Elegy of the Mountain Peoplechronicles his life growing up in Middletown, Ohio. In the book, Vance describes his hometown as “devastated by jobs and hope” and recalls how his mother’s drug addiction and rehab forced him to move in with his grandparents when he was in 10th grade.
His mother, Beverly Vancewas in Trump’s VIP box, sitting next to the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
“My movement is about single moms like me who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up,” Vance began. “I’m proud to say that tonight, my mom has been here ten years clean and sober. I love you, mom,” he said, as chants of “JD’s MOM” echoed around the arena.
From 2003 to 2007, Vance served in Iraq as a U.S. Marine before continuing his education at Ohio State University. Vance’s memoir also details his rise from a young Ohioan to a Yale Law graduate. Vance’s wife, Usha Vancerecalling their meeting at Yale in her introduction, she spoke of Vance as a “working man,” a “meat-and-potatoes kind of guy,” and a “tough Marine” whose “idea of a good time was playing with puppies and watching Babe.”
In his speech, Vance also focused on his ability to connect, paying particular attention to engaging swing states in the process. “To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and every corner of our country, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where I came from,” he said.
After graduating from Yale, Vance began his career as a venture capitalist, starting as a junior investor with Peter Thiel– backed by Mithril Capital. Thiel later donated $15 million to his Senate campaign.
Other powerful figures in the tech world have also expressed support for Trump’s choice of Vance. Elon Muskfor example, told Trump “directly that he should choose Vance as his running mate, describing the Trump-Vance pairing as ‘terrific,'” according to New York TimesAI advocates, or those who advocate the development and deployment of artificial intelligence without regard for privacy, are also excited, 404 Media notes.
Vance’s appearance on the RNC stage late Wednesday marked the final step in his evolution from a self-described “never Trumper” to the former president’s new right-hand man.
In the previous two presidential election cycles, he was a staunch opponent, calling Trump “unfit for our nation’s highest office” and akin to “cultural heroin.” In 2016, Vance’s former roommate and Georgia state senator Josh McLaurin shared an apparent screenshot of a conversation the two had about then-candidate Trump. “I kept thinking Trump was a cynical asshole like Nixon who wasn’t so bad (and might even be helpful),” Vance wrote in the message, “or that he was America’s Hitler.”
