Last night Senator---now Trump's pick for Vice President--JD Vance introduced himself to America and the world.
The New York Times said late yesterday afternoon: "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."
Indeed he did.
Be informed, not misled.
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The Times said, "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."
The personal story.
By choosing Vance, 39, Trump chose a Yale Law graduate, a U.S. Marine veteran, a best-selling author, and the nation’s first Millennial to join a presidential ticket.
American Family News says, "Vance, who was elected to the Senate in 2022, was best known before politics for Hillbilly Elegy, a sad and honest memoir about his upbringing in rural Kentucky."
The book was a New York Times best-selling book.
Linda Harvey, who leads Mission: America and lives in Columbus, tells AFN she has been “very, very impressed” with Vance as an Ohio senator.
“He has taken very strong stands, much more so than one would initially have thought,” says Harvey.
“As time has gone on, he's impressed me more and more when he speaks out. He's very brave,” she continues. “He's kind of got that same spirit that Donald Trump has that people like. He basically says I'm going to speak out about the right thing and take bold stances for conservative values."
Tom Zawistowski, who leads tea party-affiliated We the People Convention, tells AFN he is looking down the road beyond Trump’s one remaining term. Vance appears capable of continuing as the U.S. president, he says, but only time will tell if Vance can prove himself.
“This is a 12-year process,” he says. “We've got a lot of work to do to restore our Constitution, and the rule of law and basically remake Washington.”
When asked about Trump’s selection of Vance, Washington Times columnist Robert Knight also told AFN he is looking into the political future.
“If [Vance] is a forceful vice president and shows that, like Trump, he doesn't take any guff from the press and can articulate the MAGA policy positions,” Knight says, “he would be first in line for the nomination in 2028."
JD Vance once hated Trump--how does that work?
It's well documented, and the media is making as much as possible from it, Vance was no friend of Trump in the past.
He was very critical. He tells the story of how the more he watched Trump during his first term as president, the more he came to embrace his ideals. Then came to embrace Trump himself and has worked tirelessly to advance Trump's agenda since then.
A true change of heart.
Journalist Byron York is widely read by conservatives and so-called "moderates."
Yesterday York wrote, "Former President Donald Trump once privately told associates that the problem he faced selecting a running mate was that the field of potential partners did not include a no-brainer -- a candidate whose appeal was so strong, so obvious and so broad that he or she would have been a consensus pick that Trump could make without agonizing deliberations. Not having that no-brainer meant Trump would have to choose between less-than-perfect possibilities."
And he said this:
In the hour or two after the announcement, after Vance came personally to the floor of the convention where delegates instantly voted for him by acclamation as the Republican vice-presidential choice, I walked the halls of the Fiserv Forum and talked to quite a few delegates, alternate delegates, party officials, guests, and other political types. I asked each what they thought of the Vance pick. The results were mixed, reflecting the accuracy of Trump's observation that there was no no-brainer in the vice-presidential field.
Some loved the choice. That was especially true, you will not be surprised, of the Ohio delegation. They liked Vance's youth -- he is 39 and many see him, a millennial, as Trump's nod toward generational change, 39 years younger than Trump, 41 years younger than President Joe Biden, and 20 years younger than Vice President Kamala Harris. They like his enthusiastic embrace of America First and MAGA policies. They praised his intelligence, which is formidable, and they look forward to a Vance-Harris debate.
More generally, they were impressed with Vance's genuinely impressive life: an impoverished childhood in Appalachia, growing up in a family hit hard by drug addiction -- Vance told Fox News' Sean Hannity Monday night that, "My mom is about to celebrate 10 years sober" -- service in the U.S. Marines, college at Ohio State, law school at Yale, and then success in tech investing, a hugely successful memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," that was made into a movie, and finally a shift to politics, with his first elected position being U.S. senator. That's quite a resume.
"Still, other convention-goers were a little less enthusiastic," he says. "They fell into a couple of groups. One group had been looking for a more conventional pick, specifically one of the two businessman-governors in Trump's field of possibilities, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. These people tended to want executive experience in a choice, and the two governors, who were running their states after success in business, fit the bill perfectly. On the other hand, neither threw off sparks the way Vance can. If the selection was about who is more interesting -- and that is important to Trump -- they didn't make the cut."
Of course, because Vance is Trump's choice, and everybody here supports Trump, now everybody supports Vance, too. The delegates woke up on Monday not knowing who Trump's vice-presidential candidate would be. After they found out, with the TruthSocial post, Vance instantly became the man.
As Trump's pick, he is riding a new wave of support from Trump's party.
Now he has made his choice. It's safe to say that as a vice presidential candidate, Vance will be a forceful advocate for Trump, a strong defender of Trump in the media, and a smart adviser. Vance's Appalachian background and Marine experience might well help Trump expand his already strong working-class appeal. Vance told Hannity that Trump specifically mentioned the possibility that Vance would help the ticket win the crucial states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. If Vance can do that, even in just one of those states, he will very likely be the next vice president of the United States.
Takeaway
The nation and the world were introduced to JD Vance last night as he gave the keynote speech at the GOP convention.
I'll be talking more about his speech today on our live radio program. Here's how you can listen from anywhere in the world.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Courageous. Be Prayerful.