By Nathan Layne, James Oliphant and Gram Slattery for Reuters
"We'll commit to the working man," is JD Vance's message to Republican party faithful in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: AFP / Alex Wong
Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate, US Senator JD Vance, presented himself to the nation on Wednesday night as the son of a forgotten industrial Ohio town who will fight for the working class if elected in November.
He accused "career politicians" like President Joe Biden - who Vance noted has been in politics longer that he has been alive - of destroying communities like his with ill-fated trade policies and foreign wars.
"President Trump's vision is so simple and yet so powerful" he said. "We're done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We'll commit to the working man."
JD Vance was introduced by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance. Photo: AFP
In a sign of his potential value to the ticket, he also repeatedly appealed to the working and middle classes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin specifically - three Rust Belt swing states likely to decide the 5 November election.
Vance described his grandmother, "Mamaw," who raised him as his mother struggled with addiction - and acknowledged his mother, Beverly, who was on hand to watch him speak.
"I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober," Vance said. "I love you, Mom."
A visibly moved Beverly Vance mouthed, "I love you, JD," while delegates gave her a standing ovation.
Vance's prime-time debut, less than two years after assuming his first public office, capped a meteoric rise that coincided with his transformation from a fierce Trump detractor to one of his most devoted defenders. He is one of several high-profile Republicans, such as US senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, whose reversal from critic to loyalist has underscored Trump's takeover of the party.
Author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, Vance has helped to shape Trump's populist instincts into a policy agenda that would pull the U.S. back from its dominant role in global affairs. As the first millennial on a major party's ticket, he is well positioned to carry Trump's Make America Great Again movement beyond a potential second Trump term.
His speech embraced many of Trumpism's core tenets, promising to prioritise domestic manufacturing over Chinese imports and warning allies they would no longer get "free rides" in securing world peace.
Vance has opposed military aid for Ukraine and defended Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. He has argued the government must do more to assist the working class by restricting imports, raising the minimum wage and cracking down on corporate largesse. Those positions, at odds with the Republican Party's traditional pro-business stance, nonetheless track Trump's programme closely.
Democrats have already gone on offence against Vance, highlighting his strict anti-abortion views and arguing that he will advance an extreme, far-right agenda in office.
Biden, 81, was forced off the campaign trail on Wednesday after testing positive for Covid-19. The illness added to Biden's woes, after three tumultuous weeks in which he has struggled to reassure panicked Democrats that he can still defeat Trump following an anaemic debate performance on 27 June.
Trump, his right ear still bandaged after it was grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet at a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, walked into the convention to roars for the third straight night, with James Brown's 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' playing throughout the arena.
JD Vance applauds as Donald Trump arrives at the conference on the first day of the conference. Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images / AFP
Hard-hitting speeches
The evening featured a hard-hitting, emotional video in which families of soldiers killed during the 2021 US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan blamed Biden for their deaths. The relatives then took the stage and voiced their anger, with some delegates wiping away tears.
Several speakers also levelled aggressive and sometimes baseless attacks against the Biden administration. The heated tone contradicted the message of national unity Trump had promised to deliver after the attempt on his life at Saturday's rally.
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was released from prison earlier in the day after serving four months for contempt of Congress, received a huge ovation as he took the stage on Wednesday.
Navarro, who was convicted for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the committee investigating the 6 January, 2021, attack at the US Capitol by Trump supporters, said he, like Trump, was a victim of Biden's "Department of Injustice."
Trump has frequently claimed, without evidence, that his four indictments since leaving office were part of a Democratic conspiracy to prevent his election.
Others focused on Biden's border policies, a favourite target for Trump and his allies.
Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump, said Biden was the first president in history to "unsecure" the border.
"This isn't a choice," he said. "It's national suicide."
As he spoke, delegates waved signs that read, "Mass Deportation Now!"
While border crossings reached record highs during Biden's tenure, arrests dropped sharply in June after the president implemented a broad asylum ban.
Trump has pledged to launch the largest deportation effort of illegal immigrants in US history.
-Reuters