Vance goes on charm offensive with VP acceptance speech at RNC

MILWAUKEE — One of 2024 Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance 's political strengths is his personal story told through his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy and its 2020 Netflix adaptation.

But the junior senator from Ohio used his vice presidential nomination acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday to retell his story to his most important audience yet.

Vance was raised by his grandparents in Middletown, Ohio amid his family's experiences with addiction and abuse before enlisting in the Marines after high school in 2003 and deploying to Iraq in 2005 as a war correspondent. Vance then enrolled at the Ohio State University before graduating summa cum laude in two years in 2009.

"Now, I was lucky," Vance told the crowd. "Despite the closing factories and the growing addiction in towns like mine, in my life, I had a guardian angel by my side. She was an old woman who could barely walk but was tough as nails."

"I called her 'Mamaw,' the name we hillbillies gave to our grandmothers," he said to chants of "Mamaw, Mamaw!" "Mamaw raised me as her own as my own mother struggled with addiction. Thanks to Mamaw, things worked out for me."

Vance's mother Beverly Carol, who was in the convention hall inside Fiserv Forum on Wednesday, was similarly greeted with chants of "J.D.'s mom!"

"I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober," he said. "I love you, mom."

Vance was later accepted into Yale Law School and worked for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Judge David Bunning, law firm Sidley Austin, and investment firms funded by the likes of AOL co-founder Steve Case and Case's PayPal counterpart Peter Thiel after he graduated in 2013, meeting his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, with whom he shares three children, there when they were both students. Usha Vance introduced her husband on Wednesday.

"Some people tell me I’ve lived the American Dream, and they are right," he said. "But the American Dream that always counted most was not starting a business or becoming a senator or even being here with you fine people, it was becoming a good husband and a good dad, and of giving my family the things I never had as a kid."

Vance, 39, is the youngest vice presidential nominee since eventual President Richard Nixon, in an election in which age and mental acuity could cause Democrats to push President Joe Biden out of the race. Vance underscored Biden's age by noting how old he was when the incumbent made decisions that have had negative repercussions on him.

"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," Vance said. "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," he added."

As Vance praised Trump after last weekend's assassination attempt, he provided a glimpse into his own political ideology.

"Together, we will protect the wages of American workers — union and non-union alike — and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of our hard-working citizens," Vance said. "Together, we will make our allies share in the burden of securing world peace: no more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer."

"Together, we will send our kids to war only when we must," he continued. "But as President Trump showed with the elimination of ISIS, when we punch, we will punch hard. Together, we will put the citizens of America first, whatever the color of their skin. We will, in short, make America great again."

Although Trump's decision to pick Vance did rankle more establishment Republicans who disagree with Trump and the senator on issues, particularly foreign policy and the U.S.'s approach to Ukraine , many GOP convention delegates contended tapping Vance would help Trump appeal to voters in the Rust Belt, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, must-win battleground states for Biden. Vance joked the Ohio delegation needed "to chill with the Ohio love here."

"We gotta win Michigan too," he said. "We've had enough political violence."

Vance Patrick, chairman of Michigan's Oakland County Republican Party, which encompasses Detroit's northern suburbs, argued GOP delegates "are already familiar" with the other Vance because of his representation of Ohio, especially after the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The town's mayor, Trent Conaway, spoke at the convention Wednesday too.

"On top of that, Hillbilly Elegy has resonated across America for years," Patrick told the Washington Examiner.

The Biden campaign's initial response to Trump's announcing Vance as his vice presidential nominee was pointed, portraying him as a sycophant who would say "yes" to the former president's every political and policy whim.

Deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks amplified those talking points Wednesday morning during a press conference close to the convention site and specifically emphasized Vance's abortion position as he underlined Vice President Kamala Harris ' own credentials before their debate.

"You can bet that our campaign team, Biden-Harris, is going to spend every moment from now until November reminding voters of the clear choice they'll face between a Trump-Vance administration, who will ban abortion nationwide, and a Biden Harris administration, who will never stop fighting for Americans and their rights and freedoms," Fulks told reporters.

The Biden campaign simultaneously aired its first ad mentioning Vance Wednesday called "They Don't Care," which criticizes the Republican ticket over the issue of abortion. The Biden campaign has focused on the senator's past comments regarding abortion exceptions for rape and incest.

In response to reporter questions after the Florida delegation's breakfast in the Baird Center Wednesday, Evan Power, the Sunshine State's Republican Party chairman, previewed Vance's speech as an opportunity for the senator to be introduced to the country.

"Once they hear his story, from poverty in the Marines, to a top-tier law school, to what a young member of the Senate," Power, whose state is also home to vice presidential finalist Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), told the Washington Examiner. "His youth, energy, and his story is important for America and it's important for our party."

A breakfast attendee, Kathi Meo, described Vance as being well-known among Republicans but conceded he is not a household name across the "whole country," one reason why Democrats are rushing to define him.

"He's a great choice," Meo, an alternate Florida delegate and secretary of the Collier County Republican Executive Committee. "He will help unite some of the younger members of our party or even bring over some younger folks to the party."

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who himself was vetted by Trump as part of the vice presidential selection process, repeated that Republicans are "rallying around our ticket" and "locked in."

"Everybody who was on the shortlist, or whatever, our focus is winning," Donalds told the Washington Examiner. "That's the focus. It’s been the focus from day one. That hasn't changed. And we know that, as a party, all we need to do is be focused and lock arms."

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While Jay Ashcroft, Missouri Secretary of State and Republican gubernatorial candidate, lauded Vance during a lunch with reporters at Capital Grille, he asserted the pick wouldn't matter much.

"The Republican Party is fully on board with Donald Trump," Ashcroft told the Washington Examiner. "Any concerns they might have had about him: a) were being alleviated and b) were put to rest when they saw what the prospect of four more years of Joe Biden is.”