Briana Reilly | CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

MILWAUKEE — In introducing himself to Republican loyalists for the first time Wednesday night as Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance drew parallels between his impoverished upbringing and voters in middle-America who were integral to delivering the former president to the White House eight years ago.

And he seemed to marvel at the journey he took from boyhood in the “cast aside” steel town of Middletown, Ohio, to his perch onstage at the Republican National Convention here, where he formally accepted the nomination to join a ticket of a man he previously criticized when he first came into the public eye as the author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“President Trump represents America’s last quest to restore what, if lost, may never be found again: a country where a working class boy born far from the halls of power can stand on this stage as the next vice president of the United States of America,” Vance said. His wife, Usha Vance, and the former president’s eldest son Don Jr. spoke previously to introduce him.

On a day when President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 following a Las Vegas event and news broke that Democratic congressional leaders reportedly urged him to not run, Vance delivered a clear, if relatively unflashy, address that mixed his family background with accents of economic policy and hefty praise for his running mate.

Trump’s decision to select Vance earlier this week catapulted the Ohio senator from a position of relative obscurity as a junior politician just a year-and-a-half into his first term to the vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party.

The selection effectively makes the 39-year-old Vance Trump’s hand-picked standard-bearer for the MAGA movement, a role he — and others including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — had spent months auditioning for in the lead-up to this week’s Republican National Convention.

Vance used his address at Fiserv Forum to promote his populist worldview and make a pledge to “forgotten communities” across Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Trump won Ohio handily in 2016 and 2020. He won the other three in 2016 and lost them in 2020. The easiest path to the presidency for Trump is winning those three states again.

“I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” Vance said.

Vance, once a Never Trumper and now an ardent defender of the former president, also argued the GOP had a big tent on issues ranging from national security to economic policy.

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And he called for unity in the aftermath of an assassination attempt targeting Trump while the former president spoke at a campaign rally in Butler County, Pa., Saturday, an appeal heard over and over again through the convention here, even as speakers have accused Biden and the Democratic Party of wanting to destroy the American way of life and blaming Biden directly for everything from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the price of carrots to the deaths of their children.

Thus far in his short political career, Vance’s most notable efforts in the Senate have centered on his response to the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and his strong opposition to the continued provision of U.S. aid to Ukraine. He didn’t mention either topic during his speech Wednesday.

Earlier in the evening, Trump was welcomed to the convention floor by a standing ovation, thunderous applause and finally chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!” that followed him to his seat in a red box above the convention floor, flanked by Rubio and later by Burgum, as well as array of Trump family members and other politicians.

As Vance accepted the nomination, Trump stood, clapped and smiled, while the crowd intermittently chanted “JD! JD! JD!”

Vance’s speech was often interrupted by his own Ohio delegation, which intermittently cheered at mentions of their state and chanted “O-H-I-O” while he took the stage.

Urging them to quiet down, he laughingly responded — with perhaps an unintentional nod to his role on the ticket: “We gotta chill with the Ohio love, we gotta win Michigan here too.”

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