MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Eight years after warning that Donald Trump might be “America’s Hitler,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance on Wednesday night nevertheless officially accepted the offer to serve as his right-hand man.
But the man who addressed thousands of delegates on day three of the GOP convention couldn’t have sounded more different from the MAGA die-hard who has made a name for himself defending Trump, in a radical transformation that catapulted him from political novice to possibly a heartbeat from the presidency.
Vance, 39, delivered a relatively conventional prime-time acceptance speech, introducing himself to the country and leaning into the GOP’s stated themes of unity following an attempt on Trump’s life by a shooter in Pennsylvania.
“This evening could’ve been so much different,” Vance said, referring to Saturday’s shooting. “Instead of a day of celebration, it could’ve been a day of heartache and mourning. For the last eight years, President Trump has given everything to the people of this country. He didn’t need politics, but the country needed him.”
“I want all Americans to go and watch the video of the would-be assassin coming within a quarter of an inch of taking his life,” Vance added. “Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump, and then look at that photo of him defiant, fist in the air. When Donald Trump rose to his feet in that Pennsylvania field, all of America stood with him.”
He also drew on his blue-collar roots to call for more supply chain in-sourcing, for beefing up manufacturing in America and for pro-labor policies — an area in which he has sometimes has challenged GOP orthodoxy.
Vance, who was introduced onstage by his wife, Usha Vance, an attorney he met as a student at Yale Law School. The vice presidential nominee leaned heavily into his life story, which was adapted into a best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and a Netflix movie of the same name. Vance’s family is from Appalachian Kentucky and Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio. He was raised mostly by his grandmother, or “mamaw,” who came up several times during his remarks.
After Trump announced Vance’s nomination earlier this week, a flurry of news stories resurfaced alarming aspects of the senator’s biography: that he once called for a national ban on abortion; that he believes conspiracist Alex Jones is more reliable than Rachel Maddow; that he once suggested women should consider staying in abusive marriages; that he’d advise Trump to defy Supreme Court rulings and to purge purge the U.S. government of everyone but Trump loyalists; that he’s closely associated with authoritarian figures; and that he said he would’ve carried out Trump’s scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election, unlike then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Vance is only in his sophomore year in the Senate, but he’s already proven to be an influential voice, aggressively defending Trump’s positions and carrying the torch for his nationalist “America First” agenda. He’s been an outspoken critic of U.S. involvement in conflicts abroad, including continued military and financial assistance for Ukraine as it struggles to repel Russian aggression. His opposition even earned him kudos from top Russian officials, who welcomed the news of his selection as Trump’s running mate on Wednesday.
But in his speech on Wednesday, Vance sought to downplay the intraparty GOP debate on that topic or his role in fueling it.
“Our disagreements actually make us stronger, like my time in the U.S. Senate,” Vance said. “Sometimes I persuade my colleagues, and sometimes they persuade me. Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that isn’t afraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?”
Since Trump announced his nomination on Monday, Vance has carefully backpedaled on some earlier positions that didn’t align with those of the GOP presidential nominee. In a friendly interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Vance addressed the 2016 text message he sent to a Yale Law School roommate speculating that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”
“I don’t hide from that,” Vance told Hannity. “I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president, and he changed my mind. I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans.”
Vance has also previously advocated for a national ban on abortion, and once said that he didn’t believe in exceptions to abortion restrictions for rape or incest because “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
In the Hannity interview, Vance more closely aligned himself with Trump, saying he believed abortion policy should be left to the states.
“My view is that Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, and his views on abortion are going to be the views that dominate this party and drive this party forward,” Vance said, when asked about whether he’d follow Trump’s lead on the issue.
“Alabama’s going to make a different decision from California,” he added. “That is a reasonable thing. And that’s how I think we build some bridges and have some respect for one another.”
Vance did not mention abortion at all in his speech Wednesday evening.
