Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. JD Vance is scheduled to speak at Wednesday’s Republican National Convention—what will be Vance’s biggest stage yet as the first-term senator is relatively unknown to most Americans, according to a new poll.
Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, arrives on the third day of the ... [+]
Former President Donald Trump walked into the convention hall in Milwaukee shortly before 9 p.m. EDT, after making surprise appearances on the first two days of the convention, with Monday marking his first public appearance since he was shot Saturday at his rally in Pennsylvania.
Vance is scheduled to speak at 10:30 p.m. EDT, just after Donald Trump Jr—a personal friend of Vance who advocated for Vance as his father’s running mate—and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance.
Vance is expected to formally accept the Republican nomination for vice president on Wednesday, two days after Trump announced him as his running mate in a Truth Social post, citing his appeal to voters in the Midwest.
Several other notable Republicans addressed the crowd earlier Wednesday: Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro, who was released from prison earlier hours earlier after serving a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with the House Jan. 6 investigation; right-wing firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a finalist to be Trump’s running mate.
Wednesday’s theme is “Make America Strong Again,” emphasizing national security, foreign policy and immigration.
Vance has a thorny history with Trump, including questioning whether Trump was “America’s Hitler” in a private Facebook conversation in 2016, according to multiple reports. When Vance launched his 2022 Senate campaign, he rebuilt his relationship with Trump, including by spreading his election fraud claims and defending Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, eventually earning Trump’s endorsement in the race.
The 39-year-old senator, who was elected to Congress in 2022, is relatively unknown to both voters and those within his party. A YouGov poll released July 15 found the plurality, 43%, of respondents weren’t sure what their opinion of Vance was, while some Republicans have also acknowledged they’re unfamiliar. “We don’t know him,” Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra told the Associated Press.
In the lead-up to Vance’s speech Wednesday, Democrats attacked him for his previous support for a national abortion ban and his refusal to agree to a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. Vance, like many Republicans who previously called for a national abortion ban, has since revised his abortion stance to say he agrees with Trump that it is an issue that should be decided at the state level. The Trump and Biden campaigns have yet to agree on when and who will host a vice presidential debate. The Trump campaign took a dig at President Joe Biden in a statement Tuesday explaining why they had yet to come to an agreement, noting “we don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be.”
Vance beat out Burgum and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket. Vance, a Yale-educated lawyer, rose to fame with his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which chronicled the struggles of his childhood growing up in a once-booming Ohio Rust Belt town that fell victim to the manufacturing decline of the 1970s and 1980s, ushering in poverty and a drug crisis—a book widely viewed as a vivid description of the socioeconomic angst that fueled Trump’s rise among white, working-class voters. Vance has embraced Trump’s populist brand of politics, including his isolationist approach to foreign policy (he opposes U.S. aid to Ukraine and strict trade and tariff policies with China). Vance has served as a liaison between Trump and major donors in Silicon Valley, where Vance worked as a venture capitalist and biotech entrepreneur before launching his political career. Tech investor Peter Thiel was Vance’s biggest donor to his 2022 campaign, contributing a record-breaking $15 million. Vance also forged a connection between Trump and his friend, tech entrepreneur David Sacks, who hosted a $12 million fundraiser for Trump in Silicon Valley in June. In the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt against Trump, Vance blamed Biden, tweeting “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.”
Republicans on Monday formally nominated Trump for president, hours after he announced Vance as his running mate. On Tuesday, several of Trump’s one-time foes, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, spoke at the event, rallying behind the former president despite their bitter primary feuds (Rubio ran against Trump in 2016 and DeSantis and Haley challenged him this year). Haley endorsed Trump for the first time in her speech Tuesday, confirming the two have repaired the relationship.
JD Vance: Everything You Need To Know About Trump’s Running Mate (Forbes)
Nikki Haley Endorses Donald Trump At Day 2 Of Republican Convention (Forbes)
Republican National Convention: Trump Makes Appearance Days After Assassination Attempt (Forbes)