JD Vance will deliver his first speech as Trump’s vice presidential pick at the RNC

MILWAUKEE (AP) — He introduced himself to the nation after being appointed Donald Trumps running buddy, JD Vance plans to use his speech Wednesday night at the Republican Party convention to share the story of his difficult childhood and emphasize that his party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans.

The 39-year-old senator from Ohio is a relatively unknown political figure. In his first prime-time speech since being nominated for vice president, Vance is expected to talk about growing up in poverty in Kentucky and Ohio, his drug-addicted mother and absentee father, and his rise to the highest levels of American politics.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be standing here tonight,” Vance will say, according to excerpts from his speech that suggest he will be making a direct appeal to the Rust Belt voters who helped secure Trump’s 2016 victory.

“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and every corner of our country, I promise you this: I will never forget where I come from,” he will say.

Vance, who has changed rapidly in recent years from a bitter critic of the former president an aggressive defender, is positioned to be the party’s future leader and the torchbearer of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and shattered old political norms. The first millennial to join the top of a major party ticket, he enters the race as questions arise about the ages of the men at the top — the 78-year-old Trump and the 81-year-old Biden —were high on the list of voters’ concerns.

Vance said Wednesday at his first fundraising event as Trump’s running mate that he wants to use the speech to highlight the contrast between Trump and Biden.

“The one who actually connects with the working people of this country is not Fake Scranton Joe, but the real President Donald Trump,” he said.

Vance was introduced at the fundraiser by Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who said Trump’s decision to pick Vance was not about choosing a running mate or the next vice president.

“Donald Trump’s decision this week to choose J.D. Vance was about the future,” he said. “Donald Trump chose in J.D. Vance a man who is the future of the country, the future of the Republican Party, the future of the America First movement.”

Vance is relatively young and thus unfamiliar with some of the hallmarks of Republican presidential politics: This year’s gathering will be the first RNC that Vance has attended, according to a Trump campaign aide who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Trump, who entered the arena with a rendition of James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti’s “It’s a Man’s World,” will watch from his family box.

The conference organizers had already emphasized the theme of unity before the meeting. Trump survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol, officials said, would not be shown on stage.

But that changed with former White House official Peter Navarro, who was greeted with enthusiastic cheers and a standing ovation just hours after taking office. released from a Miami prison where he served for four months ignoring a subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of supporters of the former president.

“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful. They’re going to come for you,” he said in a fiery speech, comparing his legal troubles to those of Trump, who was convicted of 34 felonies earlier this year in his hush-money case. Trump also faces two felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“They didn’t break me,” Navarro said, “and they will never break Donald Trump.”

Also seen on the convention floor: Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, who convicted as part of the investigation into Russian interference in those elections.

An Ivy League graduate and former businessman, Vance rose to prominence after the publication of his 2016 bestseller memoirs “Hillbilly Elegy,” which tells the story of his working-class roots, became a must-read for anyone who wanted to understand the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House that year.

Yet most Americans — and Republicans — don’t know much about Vance. According to one new poll A survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted before Trump selected the new senator as his pick, found that 6 in 10 Americans don’t know enough about him to form an opinion.

About 2 in 10 American adults have a positive view of him, and 22% see him unfavorably. Among Republicans, 61% don’t know enough to have an opinion of Vance. About a quarter have a positive view of him, and about 1 in 10 have a negative one.

Vance will be introduced Wednesday night by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is a close friend of Vance’s, also had a primetime slot and recounted how his father stood up after the shooting and said the word “Fight!”

“Then the world discovered there is a tough guy and there is a tough Trump,” he said.

He also passed the mic to his daughter, Kai, who gave a human speech in which she called her grandfather “just a normal grandpa” who “gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking” and calls her while she’s at school to talk about golf.

“The media makes my grandfather seem like a different person, but I know him for who he is,” she said.

Kai Trump spoke of the shock of hearing her grandfather had been shot.

“I just wanted to know if he was okay,” she said. “It was heartbreaking that someone would do that to someone else.”

In addition to Vance’s primetime speech, the Republican Party on Wednesday focused on the theme of America’s global strength.

In a particularly powerful moment, families of soldiers killed during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan took the stage, holding photos of their loved ones.

Christy Shamblin, whose daughter-in-law Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee died in the attack, spoke about the six hours she said Trump spent with her family in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“He made us grieve. He made us remember our heroes,” she said, adding that Trump “knew the names of all our children” and “spoke to us in a way that made us feel understood.”

“Donald Trump carried the burden with me for a few hours. And for the first time since Nicole’s death, I felt like I wasn’t alone in my grief,” she said.

Herman Lopez, whose son, Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, was among the dead, read aloud the names of all 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack on Aug. 26, 2021.

His wife, Alicia, said they have another son in the military. “We don’t trust Joe Biden with his life,” she said. The families have criticized Biden for never publicly naming their loved ones.

Also in attendance were the parents of Omer Neutra, one of eight Americans still being held hostage in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack.

His parents, Ronen and Orna, said Trump called them after their son, a soldier in the Israeli army, was captured, offering support. As they spoke, the crowd chanted, “Bring them home!” Many waved Israeli flags.

Republicans charge that the country has become a “global laughingstock” under Biden’s administration. The party once home to defense hawks and neoconservatives has fully embraced Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, which redefined relationships with allies and adversaries.

Democrats have sharply criticized Trump and Vance for their positions, including their doubts about U.S. support for Ukraine in defending the country against the Russian invasion.

In a video released Wednesday by Biden’s re-election campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed Vance as someone Trump “knew would push his extreme agenda.”

“Make no mistake: JD Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country,” Harris said in a video.

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This story has been updated to correct the dates of the scheduled speeches from Thursday to Wednesday.

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Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Ali Swenson in Minneapolis, Farnoush Amiri, Michelle L. Price and Bill Barrow in Milwaukee, and Will Weissert and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.