JD Vance Enlists RNC Crowd During First Speech as Trump’s Running Mate

JD Vance spoke Wednesday on day three of the Republican National Convention, where the junior senator from Ohio officially accepted his nomination as Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

After introducing himself to the nation, Vance openly addressed Trump’s attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Four days ago, the former president was inches away from being killed or seriously injured by a 20-year-old man with an automatic rifle, who was shot dead on the spot by Secret Service snipers.

“As we meet tonight, we cannot forget that this evening could have been so much different instead of a holiday,” Vance said on stage. “This could have been a day of sadness and mourning.”

Vance used his first primetime speech as Trump’s running mate to tell his story of growing up in Middletown, Ohio, describing the city as “a place that had been pushed aside and forgotten by the American ruling class in Washington.”

“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or in neighboring Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states across the country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” he added.

Vance was elected as a Republican senator from Ohio in 2022. He is the author of the 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which follows his working-class family and the abuse, poverty and addiction they faced during Vance’s childhood.

Trump announced Vance as his vice presidential running mate on Monday. writing about Truth Social that the Ohio senator is “the person best qualified to take the stand.”

At the RNC, Vance also criticized President Joe Biden for supporting NAFTA, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, while in Congress, prompting the crowd at one point to chant, “Joe has got to go!”

“Joe Biden has been a Washington politician as long as I’ve been alive,” Vance, 39, said of the 81-year-old president. “For half a century, he has championed every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

“We need a leader who will fight for the people who built this country,” Vance later said of Trump. “We need a leader who is not in the pocket of big business, but who is accountable to working people, both union and non-union. A leader who will not sell himself to multinationals, but stands up for American companies and American industry. A leader who rejects the Green New scam of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and fights to bring back our great American factories.”

At the end of his speech, Vance admitted that he and his fellow Republicans might not “agree on all issues.”

“We may disagree from time to time about the best way to revive American industry and renew the American family,” he said. “That’s fine. In fact, it’s more than fine; it’s good. But never forget that the reason why this united Republican Party exists, why we do this, why we care about those great ideas and this great history, is because we want this nation to prosper for centuries to come.”

Vance then addressed Trump directly, saying, “Mr. President, I will never take for granted the trust you have placed in me.”

He added: “To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a Vice President who never forgets where he came from. by.”