Senator J.D. Vance drew a direct line on Wednesday from his traumatic upbringing in southwest Ohio to his new standing as the top lieutenant in Donald J. Trump’s conservative movement, promising the Republican National Convention that he would bring his working-class roots to Washington and help fight “for the people who built this country.”
Addressing the first national political convention he had ever attended, Mr. Vance, 39, accepted his party’s vice-presidential nomination — making him among the youngest Americans to ever fill that role — in an upbeat speech that was by far the most consequential of his fledgling yet rapidly ascendant political career.
Portraying himself as a child of Appalachia with a deep appreciation for the “grit in the American heartland,” Mr. Vance effectively framed his nomination as one for Mr. Trump’s white, working-class political base. He said he would be guided by the lessons learned from “Mamaw,” his deeply religious, foul-mouthed grandmother who raised him, and the memories of the friends and acquaintances from his old neighborhood who died of drug overdoses.
“I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give everything I have,” Mr. Vance said. “To serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family and your country will be possible once again.”
Sworn in to elected office for the first time just last year, Mr. Vance delivered a speech in Milwaukee that served as both an introduction to party delegates and a blueprint for his campaign to help return Mr. Trump to the White House. Mr. Vance will try to leverage his compelling biography to help reverse the former president’s losses in 2020 in the three battleground states with the highest percentage of white, working-class voters: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In his address, Mr. Vance mentioned Michigan six times, Pennsylvania five times and Wisconsin three times.
“You will see J.D. Vance planted in Rust Belt states very heavily between now and Election Day,” Tony Fabrizio, the Trump campaign’s top pollster, said earlier on Wednesday.
Mr. Vance immediately went to work. He painted the Chinese Communist Party as a threat to the American middle class, while denouncing the “absurd cost of housing” and “stagnant wages.” He said the Republican ticket would “not import foreign labor” and would instead rebuild factories, protect supply chains and “stamp more and more products with that beautiful label, ‘made in the U.S.A.’”
“We need a leader who fights for the people of our country,” Mr. Vance said. “We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business, but answers to the working man — union and non-union alike — a leader who won’t sell out to multinational corporations but will stand up for American industry.”
Mr. Vance’s blue-collar appeal is viewed skeptically by Democrats, who see him as an opportunist and an extremist. They have pointed in particular to his backing of a national abortion ban and his support for Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Trump looked for someone he knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda,” Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday. “Make no mistake: J.D. Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country.”
Still, at least one labor leader has applauded Mr. Vance’s addition to the Republican ticket. In a speech to the convention on Monday, Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters union, said Mr. Vance was among a group of Republican lawmakers who “truly care about working people.”
“This group is expanding and putting fear into those who have monopolized our very broken system in America,” Mr. O’Brien said.
In a race featuring a 78-year-old former president trying to unseat an embattled 81-year-old incumbent, Mr. Vance’s youth and his limited political résumé could undercut Mr. Trump’s attacks on Ms. Harris as ill-prepared to step in for President Biden if necessary. The chances of that scenario appeared to rise slightly on Wednesday as Democratic pressure on Mr. Biden grew.
But Mr. Vance, the second-youngest member of the Senate, leaned into his role as the first millennial to join a major presidential ticket by portraying Mr. Biden as old and in the way, recalling that he was in high school when Mr. Biden, then a senator from Delaware, supported the invasion of Iraq.
“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington for longer than I’ve been alive,” Mr. Vance said. “For half a century, he’s been the champion of every major policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”
He made no mention of his political conversion from a fierce Trump critic into one of the leading disciples of the former president’s MAGA movement. As an author and private citizen, Mr. Vance said in 2016 that Mr. Trump might be “America’s Hitler” and described him as “cultural heroin.”
But Mr. Vance has transformed himself in recent years with recurrent appearances on cable news and in the conservative news media defending Mr. Trump and his America First movement.
On Wednesday, Mr. Vance described the Republican Party as a “big tent” — one defined by a diversity of ideologies if not demographics. He said the party’s internal disagreements over issues like national security and economic policy should make it stronger.
“Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?” Mr. Vance asked. “That’s the Republican Party of the next four years: united in our love for this country, and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.”
A staunch supporter of Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, Mr. Vance gave a slight nod to tolerance and inclusivity. He spoke proudly of his in-laws, who are South Asian immigrants, and said the country should continue its tradition of welcoming newcomers “on our terms.”
“Together, we will put the citizens of America first, whatever the color of their skin,” he said.
Describing the evening as “a night of hope” and promising change, Mr. Vance threaded a sense of optimism throughout his speech in a way that Republican leaders have struggled to do in recent years.
One emotional moment came when Mr. Vance introduced his mother, Beverly, who struggled with drugs during his childhood but who he said had been sober for nearly a decade. Ms. Vance fought back tears as she stood applauding her son, just a few seats away from Mr. Trump.
“You know, Mom, I was thinking,” Mr. Vance said. “It’ll be 10 years officially in January of 2025, and if President Trump’s OK with it, let’s have the celebration in the White House.”
Nodding to Ms. Vance, Mr. Trump applauded.
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