Ohio Senator JD Vance formally accepted the nomination to be Donald Trump’s running mate during his speech this Wednesday (17) at the Republican National Convention.
“I officially accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America,” Vance said, to applause.
Trump, who watched the speech from inside the arena, stood up to clap.
By choosing a 39-year-old first-term senator from the middle of the country over more experienced Republicans with deeper party ties, Trump is looking to the future of his political movement.
People close to Trump say he is counting on Vance to lead the party beyond his term, an expectation he never seriously entertained for his previous vice president, Mike Pence.
The Republican candidate for vice president of the United States, Senator JD Vance, gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this Wednesday (17) for the first time since being nominated for the position. He was introduced by his wife Usha Vance.
Former “Never Trump” Republican Vance, 39, rose to fame with his 2016 memoir, “Once Upon a Dream.”
He would eventually win over Donald Trump before his Senate run. Since then, the former lawyer and venture capitalist has become a loyal Trump follower and apparent heir to his particular brand of populist Republican politics.
Vance began his speech at the Republican National Convention by saying it could have been a day of “heartache and mourning” following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
“Tonight is a night of hope – a celebration of what America once was with the grace of God, what will soon be again,” Vance said.
He also sang “OHIO” at his state delegation. He was introduced by his wife, Usha, with chants of “JD” from the crowd as he took to the stage.
Vance attacked Biden’s policies
Vance spoke about his education and attacked President Joe Biden’s policies in his speech this Wednesday (17). He argued that Biden harmed communities like the one he grew up in in Ohio.
“Somehow a New York City real estate developer named Donald J. Trump was right on all these issues, while Biden was wrong,” Vance said.
“Joe Biden screwed up and my community paid the price,” he added.
Vance said the country needs leaders “who put America first.”
The vice presidential candidate was born in Middletown, Ohio, on August 2, 1984, and spent part of his childhood in Kentucky. He recounted part of his life in his best-selling book “Once Upon a Dream”.
He served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 before attending Ohio State University and Yale Law School. Vance later worked as a venture capitalist before running for public office.
He argued that the country needs a leader who “will respond to workers, both union and non-union” and who will fight to bring factories back. Trump is the person who would accomplish these things,” he said.
Call for unity within the Republican Party
Republican Senator J.D. Vance repeated similar claims he made after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, casting the former president’s opponents as those responsible for Saturday’s violence while celebrating Trump’s subsequent calls for unity.
“Now consider what they said. They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be detained at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, the call of the nation right after a murderer almost took his life,” Vance said.
Vance at X, like some other Republican lawmakers in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, said President Joe Biden’s rhetoric was to blame.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote.
“This rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump,” he added.
In his speech, Vance stated: “And then President Trump flew to Milwaukee and went back to work. This is the man I have met personally over the past few years. He’s tough but he cares about people. He can challenge a killer one moment and call for national healing the next.”
Usha Vance introduced her husband in speech
Usha Vance, wife of the Republican vice-presidential candidate, also spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday (17).
For years, the senator has described his wife as a key part of his success. She is relatively unknown and tonight’s speech will serve as her public debut.
She is the daughter of Indian immigrants who grew up outside of San Diego. She met her husband at Yale Law School, where she also earned her undergraduate degree.
After college — two stints at Yale and a master’s degree in philosophy at Cambridge University — she clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Her family is Hindu. JD Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019.
She worked as an associate at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson until Monday, when the firm announced she had resigned.
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