Former President Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance, delivered remarks as he formally accepted the Republican nomination for vice president Wednesday evening.
Vance has served in the Senate for less than two years, so his address on Wednesday was the first time many voters heard from him.
"Greetings, Milwaukee, my fellow Americans and fellow Republicans," Vance began. "Tonight is a night of hope. A celebration of what America once was, and with God's grace, what it will soon be again."
Recalling the assassination attempt against Trump
"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."
"And what did he call us to do for our country?" Vance asked. "To fight. To fight for America."
"They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs," he said of Trump. "And how did he respond? He called for national unity."
Accepting the nomination
"My message to my fellow Americans is: Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?" Vance said. "That’s the Republican Party of the next four years: united in our love for America, and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas."
"So tonight, I stand here humbled, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude, to say I officially accept your nomination to be vice president of the United States of America," he said.
Vance says he grew up witnessing missteps
Vance said his hometown of Middletown, Ohio was left behind by out-of-touch lawmakers.
"When I was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good American manufacturing jobs to Mexico," Vance said.
He highlighted trade deals given to China, a "disastrous" invasion of Iraq, the offshoring of jobs and the introduction of fentanyl to American communities like his.
"Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price," he said.
"My work taught me that there is still so much talent and grit in the American heartland. But for these places to thrive, we need a leader who fights for the people who built this country," Vance said. We need President Donald J. Trump."
"Things did not work out well for a lot of kids I grew up with. Every now and then I will get a call from a relative back home who asks, 'Did you know so and so?' And I’ll remember a face from years ago. And then I’ll hear, 'They died of an overdose.'"
Calling for Republican leadership
"Donald Trump represents America’s last best hope to restore what — if lost — may never be found again," Vance said.
"This moment is not about me, it’s about all of us, and who we’re fighting for," he said. "It’s about the autoworker in Michigan, wondering why out-of-touch politicians are destroying your jobs. It’s about the factory worker in Wisconsin, who makes things with their hands and is proud of American craftsmanship. It’s about the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio, who doesn’t understand why Joe Biden is willing to buy energy from tin-pot dictators but not hardworking Americans right here at home."
"Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington for longer than I’ve been alive," Vance said. He compared President Biden's tenure to the economic policies of Trump's first term. "Just imagine what he can do when we give him four more years."
Highlighting economic troubles
Vance said the current economy was the result of policy failures — the influence of Wall Street, wage stagnation and immigration.
He said it has failed policy has led to inflated costs for gas and rent, and contributed to opioid addiction.
"We won’t import foreign labor, we’ll fight for American citizens and their good jobs and their good wages," Vance said. "We're done buying energy from countries that hate us, we’ll get it right here from American workers in Pennsylvania, in Ohio and across the country. We're done sacrificing our supply chains to unlimited global trade, we’ll stamp every product with that beautiful label: Made in the USA."
A pledge to Americans
"Mr. President, I will never take for granted the trust you have put in me," Vance said. "And what an honor it is to help achieve the extraordinary vision you have for our country."
"I pledge to every American: No matter your party, I will give everything I have to serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family, and your country will be possible once again," he said.
"I promise you this: I will never be a vice president who forgets where he came from," said Vance.
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Vance is a Republican senator from Ohio and author of "Hillbilly Elegy." The 39-year-old Vance was raised in the Rust Belt and Appalachian towns of Middletown, Ohio, and Jackson, Kentucky. Prior to entering politics, Vance worked at a corporate law firm before moving to San Francisco to become a venture capitalist.
Vance's wife Usha, an attorney, introduced her husband.
