Sen. JD Vance of Ohio accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination Wednesday night, vowing to never forget where he came from as he highlighted his life story and the failures of the Washington political class.
“America’s ruling class wrote the checks; communities like mine paid the price,” Vance, 39, said in accepting the nomination for vice president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “For decades, that divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened.”
Former President Donald Trump announced his choice of Vance as his running mate Monday, the convention’s first day Together, they plan to take on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, although many Democrats continue to urge Biden to step aside as their nominee.
“From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again,” he said. “That is, until President Donald J. Trump came along.”
Vance, elected to the Senate in 2022—five decades after Biden was first elected to the Senate—contrasted his youth to Biden’s while also saying Biden has been wrong on most policies and issues in his decades in office.
Biden has been the champion of “every major policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer,” Vance said.
“When I was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico,” he said of the North American Free Trade Agreement. “When I was a sophomore in high school, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good middle-class jobs. And when I was a senior in high school, Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq.”
The Ohio Republican went on to highlight the struggles of Americans, especially in several battleground states in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“Each step of the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan and other states across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” Vance said.
Vance’s wife Usha introduced him at the GOP convention.
“I met JD in law school when he was fresh out of Ohio State, which he attended with the support of the G.I. Bill,” she told delegates. “He was then, as now, the most interesting person I knew. A working-class guy who had overcome childhood traumas that I could barely fathom to end up at Yale Law School. A tough Marine who had served in Iraq but whose idea of a good time was playing with puppies.”
In his speech, Vance talked about his life, chronicled in his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was later made into a movie directed by Ron Howard.
He discussed growing up poor in rural Middletown, Ohio, where his grandmother Bonnie Blanton Vance (or “Mamaw”) raised him because his mother was addicted to drugs. He enlisted in the Marines after 9/11 and later graduated from Yale Law School.
Vance, once a harsh critic of Trump, said the conservative movement he now leads is “about single moms like mine, who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up.”
“I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober,” he said. “I love you, Mom.”
Bev Vance, seated near Trump, teared up as the crowd chanted, “JD’s mom, JD’s mom.”
Acknowledging that his economic views sometimes clash with those of traditional Republicans, Vance said, “Our disagreements actually make us stronger.”
“My message to my fellow Americans is: Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?” he said. “That’s the Republican Party of the next four years: united in our love for America, and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.”
Vance has been telling reporters that the success of Trump’s policies during his first presidency, despite Democrats’ constant attacks and investigations, won him over.
Vance mentioned the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday evening, noting: “Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning.”
He said Trump’s enemies have told many lies about him. But the former president’s toughness, he said, was clear after the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which also killed one man and wounded two others in the crowd.
“They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said of Trump’s political opponents.
“He called for national unity, for calm,” after the shooting, Vance said. “He remembered the victims of the terrible attack, especially the brave Corey Comperatore, who gave his life to protect his family.”
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report, which was updated with additional photos and details shortly after publication.
