JD Vance Plays Up Working Class Roots, Populist Politics in RNC Speech

J.D. Vance Delivers His Vice Presidency Nomination Acceptance Speech. Photo by Jeramey Jannene

In his first speech as Donald Trump‘s running mate, JD Vance played up his working class roots, putting an exclamation point on the populist message Trump and Republicans have been attempting to sell to voters.

“I grew up in Middletown, Ohio. A small town where people spoke their minds built with their hands and love their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts.”

Adding Vance, a Republican Senator from Ohio, to the ticket gives Trump and the Republican Party a source of credibilty for their increasing populist message, which seeks to convince voters that it’s about the “forgotten people” of the country.

With a bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, and later a movie based on that book, Vance’s life story — growing up in Appalachia in a dysfunctional working class family and a mother struggling with addiction — is already well known. His wife, Usha, observed this in a speech introducing him to the crowd at Fiserv Forum Wednesday night.

Vance, 39, delivered a speech reinforcing the Trump campaign’s “America First” message, including promises to reshore manufacturing and increase extraction and production of fossil fuels in the U.S. He also seemed to confirm that he is the personification of the campaign’s strategy to win back the Midwestern swing states that clinched the 2020 election for Joe Biden: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Vance peppered his speech with references to them, including a joke that his Ohio fans needed to stop cheering, Republicans need to win rival Michigan.

The Senator still managed to hit on the red meat issues and “Make America Strong Again” talking points that titillated the convention crowd all night, like immigration, fentanyl and drug cartels.

He said the rising cost of housing is a symptom of what’s “broken” in Washington D.C. and managed to blame both the Wall Street bankers that cause the mortgage crisis and immigrants.

“I can tell you exactly how it happened,” Vance, a Yale trained attorney, said. “Wall Street barons crashed the economy and put American builders out of business. As tradesmen scrambled for jobs, houses stopped being built. The lack of good jobs, of course led to stagnant wages, and then the Democrats flooded this country with millions of illegal aliens. Citizens had to compete with people who shouldn’t even be here for precious housing.”

Vance has to square the anti-immigration stance of Trump and the Republican Party with the reality of his own family. His wife is the daughter of immigrants from India. He conceded that immigration is part of the nation’s “tradition” but that ” when we allow newcomers into our American family, we allow them on our terms.”

Trump and Vance are notably not on the same page when it comes to abortion, which is shaping up to be one of the primary issues of the 2024 election. Trump managed to keep a national abortion ban out of the Republican Party’s 2024 platform. Vance has expressed support for a national abortion ban that does not include exceptions for incest and rape. Democrats have already slammed Vance for his views, buying nine billboards around Milwaukee before his speech

Vance was famously a “Never Trumper” when Trump first ran for the presidency. He has since ditched his opposition, receiving an endorsement from Trump in his 2022 senate campaign.

“We have a big tent in this party on everything from national security to economic policy,” Vance said. “But my message to you, my fellow Republicans is we love this country, and we are united to win.”

Trump is expected to speak Thursday evening, the convention’s closing night.