J.D. Vance, former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, stands at the podium during a rehearsal for the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Feather Forum in Milwaukee this week.
Nikolai Hammar/NPR
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Nikolai Hammar/NPR
MILWAUKEE — Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Donald Trump’s pick as vice president, has earned a reputation in Washington as one of Trump’s staunchest and toughest defenders.
Just look at what just happened with Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump. Vance quickly took to social media to put the blame squarely on President Biden and called a top Democrat on Capitol Hill a “scumbag” for introducing legislation months ago that would have eliminated Secret Service protections for convicted felons. Protection of criminals.
However, the man who made America great again was not the man we saw across the country on Wednesday night when he delivered the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention as Trump’s running mate. Instead, the Marine Corps veteran showed a decidedly softer side.
Here are four takeaways from Vance’s speech and the rest of Night 3 in Milwaukee:
1. This is Vance’s first date with America.
When you meet someone for the first time—going on a date, interviewing for a job—you try to be your best, kindest, most amenable self. No one wants to see a flash of anger, name-calling, or anything like that.
This is especially true when you’re running for vice president and almost half the country doesn’t have a problem with you yet. An Economist/YouGov poll this week found that 48% of people have yet to form an opinion of Vance — just 22% have a positive view and 31% have a negative view of him.
Signs read “Make America Great Again!” on the third night of the Republican National Convention.
Grace Vidyatmaja/NPR
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Grace Vidyatmaja/NPR
So in this speech, Vance emphasizes his more personal side – telling his kids to go to bed and talking about his love for his mom and grandma. Only a few minutes into his speech did he hint at his anger at the left, saying Trump had been “abused, slandered and persecuted” and that people told him “lies” and “then looked at him in a right way” . Fists raised” and how the left called him a “tyrant who must be stopped at all costs”, yet he “called for calm” and “national unity”.
In that speech, Vance did not turn to blaming Democrats and the president. This side of Vance will reappear in this campaign, but it was not present during his time in the United States. Instead, the nation saw a smiling, relatively young 39-year-old man whose wife was awed by his love and clearly subservient to the man on top.
2. This is still about Donald Trump.
Going into this convention, that was true regardless of who was chosen, but it may be even more true after this speech—perhaps at no time in history has the choice of vice president mattered that much.
Of course, the 78-year-old Trump could theoretically up the ante on this kind of pick, with Trump selecting a guy half his age. But the scale of this conference is small republican party National Congress vs. trump card The National Congress was attended by only one man and one woman.
Vance has made clear that he has no intention of overtaking Trump, much like Sarah Palin upstaged the late Sen. John McCain at the 2008 convention. She gave a brilliant speech that had people tearing “McCain” off their McCain-Palin bumper stickers.
That won’t happen this time — and that’s exactly what Trump wants.
Former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
3. Vance’s speech was aimed at a general election audience.
The strong subtext of this week’s Republican National Convention is an appeal to the blue-collar class — but more in tone than in policy.
Vance was very interested in this, his biography, and his family roots in Appalachia. Before becoming a U.S. Senator, he wrote New York Times-Best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis. Vance even called himself a “redneck” on stage Wednesday night.
Wisconsin, home to the Republican National Committee this year, is a swing state with a strong base of blue-collar voters. Vance, who is from a Midwestern state, had a similar experience. Although his home state of Ohio is no longer a swing state and is trending toward the Republican Party, Trump hopes Vance can appeal to voters in so-called blue wall states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, which also have large populations of white, working-class Americans. personnel.
Vance hinted at the importance of these states early in his speech, when the Ohio delegation began cheering loudly for them.
He interrupted them and said, “We’ve got to be cool with the love for Ohio State, and we’ve got to win Michigan, too.”
4. Tone is one thing, but policy is another.
Vance said the country needs a “leader who fights for the workers of this country” and someone who “fights for workers, unions and non-unions.” He added that under a Trump-Vance administration, they would no longer fight for Wall Street but for workers — though Trump told Bloomberg News he would consider replacing JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as Treasury Secretary.
During his tenure as president, Trump became known for pursuing very anti-union policies. Vance, for his part, comes from a blue-collar background and has a 0% rating from the AFL-CIO in 2023.
However, the Teamsters chairman spoke at the Republican National Committee on Tuesday night. He didn’t express his approval, but his presence was significant. This was a clear indication that he was feeling pressure from some within the union. This has much more to do with culture than pro-union policies.
“For court workers, it’s a lot different than being pro-labor,” Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told NPR’s Don Gonyea. “The rhetoric comes in handy. Easy, and sometimes attractive, but without follow-up, very damaging.
At the heart of this cultural appeal is a policy area that Republicans talked about much Wednesday: immigration and the fear of job losses as a result.
The party’s hard line on the issue acts as the glue to its working-class appeal. The story is similar for right-wing populism around the world.
Of course, the person who sets the tone and policy in this party is Trump, and everyone will finally hear from him on Thursday night in his first major speech since Saturday’s shooting.
