After JD Vance was named President Trump’s running mate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Tuesday evening, the new Vice Presidential candidate from Ohio spoke to the crowd, delivering a message of hope. In his remarks, Vance went into detail about his formative years and also some of his personal experiences in life that have shaped who he is today.
“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” said Vance. “I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved their God, their family, their community, and their country with their whole hearts.”
He then noted that President Biden’s policies dating back decades have hurt the place he grew up in.
“But it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington. 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 jobs to Mexico. When I was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good American middle class manufacturing jobs. When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq.”
“At each step of the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio or next door in Pennsylvania or Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and our children were sent to war.
Vance contrasted Biden’s viewpoints throughout the years with President Trump’s.
“And somehow, a real estate developer from New York City by the name of Donald J. Trump was right on all of these issues, while Biden was wrong. President Trump knew even then that we needed leaders who would put America first. Now, thanks to these policies that Biden and other out-of-touch politicians in Washington gave us, our country was flooded with cheap Chinese goods, and cheap foreign labor. And in the decades to come, deadly Chinese fentanyl.”
The VP candidate also fondly discussed the woman that he credits with keeping him on the right track early on in life.
“Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price. Now, I was lucky. Despite the closing factories and the growing addiction in towns like mine in my life, I had a guardian angel by my side,” said Vance. “She was an old woman who could barely walk, but she was tough as nails. I called her Mamaw, the name we hillbillies gave to our grandmothers. Mamaw raised me as her own. Mamaw raised me as my mother struggled with addiction. Mamaw was, in so many ways, a woman of contradiction. She loved the Lord, ladies and gentlemen. She was a woman of very deep Christian faith.”
“But she also loved the f-word. I’m not kidding. She could make a sailor blush. Now, she once told me when she found out that I was spending too much time with a local kid who was known for dealing drugs, that if I ever hung out with that kid again, she would run him over with her car. And she said, JD no one will ever find out about it.”
“Now, thanks to Mamaw, things worked out for me.”
Additionally, he spoke about joining the Marines and why he has helped to build businesses.
“After 911, I did what thousands of other young men my age did in that time of soaring patriotism and love of country. I enlisted in the United States Marines,” Vance said. “I left the Marines after four years and went to the Ohio State University. After Ohio State, I went to Yale Law School where I met my beautiful wife. And then I started businesses to create jobs in the kind of places that I grew up in. Now, my work taught me that there is still so much talent and grit in the American heartland. There really is. But for these places to thrive, my friends, we need a leader who fights for the people who built this country.”
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While Vance did say that being the new VP candidate for Trump was “pretty awesome” he explained his version of the American dream.
“My most important American dream was becoming a good husband and a good dad. Of being able to give,” Vance states. “I wanted to give my kids the things that I didn’t have when I was growing up. And that’s the accomplishment that I’m proudest of tonight I’m joined by my beautiful wife Usha, an incredible lawyer and a better mom. And our three beautiful kids, Ewan, who’s seven, Vivek, who’s four, and Mirabel, who’s two.”
The VP also candidate gave a direct message to his children.
“Kids, if you’re watching, Dad loves you very much, but get your butts in bed, it’s 10:00.”
Many expect that Vance, 39, will help to draw in younger voters and young families on Election Day. Additionally, Vance has several Silicon Valley allies that could help with campaign funding. However, some news sources believe the selection of Vance as VP is unlikely to have much of an effect on the overall race.
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten
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