J.D. Vance is 39 years old and has spent just 18 months as the junior senator from Ohio; he had never even attended a national political convention before this year. But tonight, the newly minted Republican vice-presidential nominee will introduce himself to millions of Americans as one of the party’s most powerful figures.
You can expect Vance to use the prime-time address to tell his personal story, our political correspondent Michael Bender told me. It’s the kind of tale that helped convince Donald Trump that he would be an asset: Vance grew up poor, enlisted in the Marine Corps, went to Yale Law School and wrote a best-selling book.
So far, Vance has received a mostly warm welcome in Milwaukee, where the party’s convention is in its third day. “We’re at a moment in time right now where Trump can do no wrong in the party’s eyes,” Michael said. “A lot of that excitement and momentum is transferring directly to J.D. Vance.”
Vance — once a sharp Trump critic — earned the admiration of many of the former president’s allies during his time in the Senate, where he did not establish much of a legislative record but showed a willingness to break with Republican orthodoxy and mount a lawyerly defense of Trump’s policies. Perhaps his most consequential shift was his choice to defend Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. We took a look at Vance’s other policy views.
Michael said we should also expect Vance to mention his isolationist foreign policy positions, perhaps including his opposition to aiding Ukraine. “Trump picked Vance not just because of his roots in the Midwest where Trump needs to win, but also because he has been one of the party’s most combative voices on some of its most controversial issues,” he added.
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