By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MILWAUKEE, USA (Worthy News) – The running mate of Donald J. Trump told the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee that he would help the former U.S. President make America great again.
In his first RNC speech, J.D. Vance, 39, said, “Tonight is the night of hope.”
He recalled growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, with his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent. “If President Trump allows it, I would like to celebrate her 10th anniversary free from drugs in January in the White House,” he said, smiling with his mother watching nearby.
Vance later joined the Marines, graduated from Yale Law School, and went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics — an embodiment of an American dream he said is now in short supply.
“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” he said.
The first millennial on a major-party ticket, Vance spent much of his speech talking up Trump and going after Biden, using his relative youth to draw a contrast with the 81-year-old president.
“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive,” Vance said. “For half a century, he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”
The crowds appreciated him, with many erupting into chants of “Mamaw!” in honor of his grandmother and chanting “JD’s Mom!” after he introduced his mother
Vance was introduced Wednesday night by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, who talked of the stark difference between how she and her husband grew up. She is a middle-class immigrant from San Diego, and he from a low-income Appalachian family.
She called him “a meat and potatoes kind of guy” who became a vegetarian and learned to cook Indian food for her mother.
This year’s gathering is the first RNC that Vance has attended, according to the Trump campaign.
Trump, who entered the arena to a version of the song “It’s a Man’s World” by James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti, was watching from his family box.
A bandage was seen around his right ear as he survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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