MILWAUKEE — Introducing himself to the nation after Donald Trump picked him as his running mate, J.D. Vance is planning to use his Wednesday night address at the Republican National Convention to share the story of his hardscrabble upbringing and make the case that the GOP ticket best understands the challenges facing many Americans.
The 39-year-old Ohio senator is a relative political unknown. In his first primetime speech since becoming the nominee for vice president, Vance is expected to recount growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent, and how he later went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics.
Vance, who rapidly morphed in recent years from a severe critic of the former president to an aggressive defender, is positioned to become a potential leader of the former president’s political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and broken longtime political norms. The first millennial to join the top of a major party ticket, he enters the race when questions about the age of the men at the top – 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old Biden – have been high on the list of voters’ concerns.
Speaking at a fundraiser earlier Wednesday in Milwaukee, Vance also said he will drive home the call for the former president to be reelected.
“The guy who actually connects with working people in this country is not Fake Scranton Joe, it’s Real President Donald Trump,” Vance said, referencing President Joe Biden.
Along with his relative youth, he is new to some of the hallmarks of Republican presidential politics: This year’s gathering is the first RNC that Vance has attended, according to a Trump campaign official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
He joins the ticket as Republican leaders have called for unity after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Yet as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich pointed out while addressing Iowa Republicans on Wednesday, Trump choosing Vance was a move toward further transforming the party rather than picking someone conventional to “consolidate” Republicans.
“He had time to think it through, and his answer is, ‘No, people aren’t for me so I can compromise. People are for me so we can get things done,” Gingrich said, “and I need somebody who believes in what we’re doing. And I’m not going to reach out to someone who isn’t us.'”
Vance is an Ivy League graduate and a businessman, but his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” explores his blue-collar roots. It made him a national name when it was published in 2016. The book is now seen as a window into some of the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House that year.
RNC Day 3 live updates: Vance to make prime-time speech
Still, most Americans – and Republicans – don’t know much about Vance. According to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which was conducted before Trump selected the freshman senator as his vice presidential choice, 6 in 10 Americans don’t know enough about him to form an opinion. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults have a favorable view of him, and 22% view him negatively. Among Republicans, 61% don’t know enough to have an opinion of Vance. About one-quarter have a positive view of him, and roughly 1 in 10 have a negative view.
His wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, will speak Wednesday night, too, according to a person familiar with the program.
Beyond Vance’s primetime speech, the Republican Party focused Wednesday on a theme of American global strength. Speakers were to include family members of service members killed during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and of someone taken hostage during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, the person said.
Republicans contend that the country has become a “global laughingstock” under Biden’s watch and were expected to hit on their theme to “Make America Strong Once Again.” That’s expected to include Trump’s “America First” foreign policy that redefined relationships with some allies and adversaries.
Democrats have sharply criticized Trump – and Vance – for their positions, including their questioning U.S. support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion.
In a video released Wednesday by Biden’s reelection campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris dismissed Vance as someone Trump “knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda.”
“Make no mistake: J.D. Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country,” Harris says in a video.
Vance has become one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders as the former president has sought the office a third time, sparring with journalists, campaigning on his behalf and appearing with the candidate at his trial in New York.
Trump did a walk-through at the convention center Wednesday, in preparation for his prime time address to delegates Thursday.
It will be his first public remarks since the assassination attempt on Saturday in Pennsylvania. Earlier this week Trump indicated that he tossed out his old speech, and drafted a new one focusing on unity.
Trump spent time practicing his entrance, and adjusting his stance.
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Michelle L. Price and Bill Barrow in Milwaukee, and Will Weissert and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.
ABC7 Chicago’s Craig Wall contributed to this report.
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