JD Vance, a former Die-Hard Never Trumper, has completed his MAGAmorphosis
JD Vance leaned heavily on his Ohio roots in his highly anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, he described how his upbringing — what he calls his own “American Dream” — made him the right man to take on the role. Donald Trump on the 2024 Republican nomination.
“I never imagined I would be standing here tonight. I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved God, family, community, and country with all their hearts,” Vance said, “but it was also a place that was abandoned by America’s ruling class in Washington.”
This sentiment dominated Vance’s speech—a recounting of his childhood interrupted by “out-of-touch politicians” who made things worse. He blamed President Joe Biden“Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price,” Vance said. Vance used a populist tone throughout the speech, accusing those in power of neglecting communities like his, alluding to trade policies like NAFTA and the Iraq War. (Although as Washington Post‘S Aaron Blake note (Both “receive more support from Republicans in Congress than Democrats.”) Vance is also notably supportive of Trump’s economic agenda, including extending the former president’s 2017 tax cuts, the benefits of which, New York Times notedThis week, “disproportionate accumulation for the rich.”
Michael Tylercommunications director for the Biden-Harris campaign, call Vance is “the poster boy for Project 2025,” a basic careful plan to rebuild the government. While Vance “took center stage” on Wednesday, he said, “working families and the middle class will suffer if he is allowed to stay there.”
“Backed by Silicon Valley and the billionaires who bought his vice presidential candidacy, Vance is Project 2025 in human form—an agenda that puts extremism and the super-rich above our democracy,” Tyler added.
Trump unveiled the 39-year-old senator as his vice presidential nominee on Monday as the RNC kicked off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just days after gunner tried to assassinate Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Before the suspect was identified or a motive determined, Vance quick to blame the shooting of Joe Biden and the Democrats he serves alongside in Congress.
“The central premise of Biden’s campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance Written about X. “That rhetoric leads directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump.”
Vance reiterated his comments in a speech on Wednesday, saying Trump had endured “abuse, vilification and oppression.”
“Look at what they say, they say he’s a tyrant, they say he must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said. “Look at the lies they tell you about Donald Trump, and look at that picture of him defiant, his fist in the air.”
Before running for office, Vance was best known for his best-selling memoir, The Elegy of the Mountain Peoplechronicles his life growing up in Middletown, Ohio. In the book, Vance describes his hometown as “devastated by jobs and hope” and recalls how his mother’s drug addiction and rehab forced him to move in with his grandparents when he was in 10th grade.
His mother, Beverly Vancewas in Trump’s VIP box, sitting next to the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
“My movement is about single moms like me who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up,” Vance began. “I’m proud to say that tonight, my mom has been here ten years clean and sober. I love you, mom,” he said, as chants of “JD’s MOM” echoed around the arena.
From 2003 to 2007, Vance served in Iraq as a U.S. Marine before continuing his education at Ohio State University. Vance’s memoir also details his self-made journey from a young Ohioan to a Yale Law graduate. Vance wife, Usha Vancerecalling their meeting at Yale in her introduction, she spoke of Vance as a “working man,” a “meat-and-potatoes kind of guy,” and a “tough Marine” whose “idea of a good time was playing with puppies and watching Babe.”
In his speech, Vance also focused on his ability to relate, paying particular attention to Call on swing states “To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and every corner of our country, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where I came from,” he said.
After graduating from Yale, Vance began his career as a venture capitalist, begin as a junior investor Peter Thiel– backed by Mithril Capital. Thiel then gave $15 million for his Senate campaign.
Other power players in the tech world show support because Trump chose Vance. Elon MuskOne person told Trump “directly that he should pick Vance as his running mate, describing the Trump-Vance pairing as ‘terrific.'” based on the New York Times. AI maxers, or those who advocate the development and deployment of artificial intelligence without attention, also very happyRecorded by 404 Media.
Vance’s appearance on the RNC stage late Wednesday symbolized the final step in his evolution from a self description “The ‘Never Trump’ Man” with the Former President New rights man hand
In the previous two presidential election cycles, he was a staunch opponent, call Trump is “unfit for our nation’s highest office” and alike to “cultural heroin.” In 2016, Vance’s former roommate and Georgia state senator Josh McLaurin to shared An apparent screenshot of a conversation the two shared about then-candidate Trump. “I kept thinking Trump was a cynical asshole like Nixon who wasn’t so bad (and might even be helpful),” Vance wrote in the message, “or that he was America’s Hitler.”
