J.D. Vance has gone from a working-class memoirist to the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Here, the Opinion writer Michelle Cottle introduces listeners to the man whom Donald Trump has picked to be his running mate. Plus, hear what Republican National Convention attendees think of the winner of the Republican veepstakes so far.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of the audio piece. To listen to this piece, click the play button below.
Michelle Cottle: I’m Michelle Cottle, and I cover national politics for Opinion.
It’s Wednesday, which means, in convention terms, that’s traditionally when the V.P. candidate speaks. Tonight we’re going to get to hear from Senator J.D. Vance, who is Donald Trump’s pick for his running mate.
Following the horrific shooting at the Pennsylvania rally, Trump and his campaign team have been talking about calling for unity and saying they’re going to focus more on that. Vance is not a unity pick. He is not who you would reach for if you were really trying to bring together lots of different pieces of the electorate. He tends to be a partisan, feisty figure, so I will be interested to see how they balance these things in his speech.
I am not on site in Milwaukee this week. I’m watching it on TV, like God intended. But my colleague, Isaac Jones, has been trolling the floor ——
Audio clip of Isaac Jones: Can I ask you a quick question? I’m here reporting for The New York Times.
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: Sure.
Cottle: Getting insights from the different delegates and trying to just check out the vibe on site.
Clip of Jones: So if you could describe the V.P. candidate with Trump, J.D. Vance, in one word, what would you say?
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: J.D. Vance is a hero. I’m serious.
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: Well, not one word, but I would say American dream.
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: Christian.
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: Slightly above average.
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: Well, he’s vibrant for the ticket. He’s vibrant for the ticket.
Cottle: Vance is really young. And rarely has age been such an issue in a presidential race.
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: I think he’s a hard worker. And I like that he’s 39 years old. [Laughs.] He’s got his brain cells left.
Cottle: You’re looking at two really old nominees, which naturally has people thinking about, like, well, what happens if one of them can’t fill out their term? But even more immediately, you need some energy. You need some fresh blood.
The other thing you hear, which is what you frequently hear, is people don’t really know that much about him. But if Trump says he’s OK, or they know he has defended Trump very vigorously, then they’re cool with that.
Clip of R.N.C. attendee: Yeah. I don’t really know his V.P., but if he trusts him, I trust him.
Cottle: J.D. Vance was definitely the guy that the MAGA folks could get excited about. For one, he has been a staunch economic populist with the same kind of both-parties-have-spent-too-much-time-worrying-about-rich-folks-let’s-get-this-back-to-the-regular-people. He’s got his roots in white working-class America. He’s done his tour in the Marines. And for the part of the party that does not think that we should be spending a lot of money or time doing things like supporting Ukraine in the war with Russia, he is a big champion for isolationism.
Vance is also kind of this young model of traditional values. He talks about the importance of family and the importance of fertility. He is very conservative on questions not just of marriage but also, say, reproductive rights, which, among the conservative, socially conservative Republican base, it actually does play really well.
Now, that said, anybody who’s not of the MAGA base is going to have a lot to dislike, or at least be very nervous about. For more traditional Republicans, his economic populism doesn’t play that well among certain pro-business circles. Obviously, his social conservatism is going to freak out women voters who are upset about the eroding of abortion access.
There’s also some concern among conservatives who are anti-Trump that he is in the vein of being OK with a lot of Trump’s authoritarian impulses. He’s certainly been very aggressive about promoting the whole “Stop the Steal,” election fraud, you-gotta-watch-the-Democrats-for-their-electoral-shenanigans thing. There is plenty for people to dislike, or at least be very nervous about.
Back during his campaign, I went out on the trail and watched him on the stump. He’s big friends with Donald Trump Jr. — it’s one of the advantages he had in the veepstakes race. He’s fine. He’s not super charismatic. He tends to be much better on TV. And then once he got into office, I sat down with him to talk after his first year of doing the legislative thing.
He is incredibly smart and incredibly ambitious. So if I were Donald Trump, I’d be sleeping with one eye open. Because the minute they’re in office, I suspect Vance will be kind of eyeballing the Oval Office, measuring for curtains. Now, Trump doesn’t worry about a lot of these things because he sees himself as a man of destiny, and of course nobody’s going to outshine him.
But with Trump, there’s always the possibility that it could turn dark very quickly. And that’s the kind of thing that I assume Vance has taken into account. And if not, he can always give Mike Pence a ring for some advice.
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