With a kiss to his wife, vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance walks out to the sound of Merle Haggard’s America First which has played several times during the convention.
Bowing his head and waving to the crowd, the 39-year-old Ohio senator, elected just 20 months ago, says, “Wow, wow!” as the crowd briefly chants “J.D., J.D.”
“My name is J.D. Vance, from the great state of Ohio.”
Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance arrives on stage.Credit: AP
To the chat of O-HIO, he says: “We gotta chill with the Ohio love, we have to win Michigan too.”
“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” he says, making a direct appeal to the rust belt voters who helped drive Trump’s 2016 victory, making clear he understood their anger and frustration.
“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” he says.