JD Vance vows to fight for ‘forgotten communities’ in hometown rally
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Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, right, takes the stage with his wife Usha Vance during a rally at Middletown High School in his home town of Middletown, Ohio, Monday.Paul Vernon / AP -
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrive a campaign rally, Saturday in Grand Rapids, Mich.Evan Vucci / AP -
MIDDLETOWN, OHIO - JULY 22: Guests begin arriving at Middletown High School for a campaign rally with Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) on July 22, 2024 in Middletown, Ohio. Vance, who graduated from the high school in 2003, will be holding his first solo rally as a vice presidential candidate in the school's performing arts center. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images North America
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio –– Ohio Sen. JD Vance said Monday he would fight for “forgotten communities all across our country” if elected as vice president, channeling his small town Ohio upbringing into a populist economic message.
“My life wasn't all that different from a lot of people who grew up in Middletown, Ohio,” he said. “It was tough, but it was surrounded by loving people, and it was surrounded by something that if we don't fight for is not going to be around for the next generation of kids, and that's opportunity.”
The first-term Senator was named as former President Donald Trump’s running mate last week at the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, a weeklong celebration for a party unified and remade in Trump’s image.
Vance’s speech combined biography – rattling off anecdotes from his time at Middletown High School – and philosophy, connecting things like American trade policies enacted in the 1990s to the decline in manufacturing jobs in the Midwest.
“We're going to fight for every single worker in this country,” he pledged. “If you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to put a good dinner on the table and send your kids to whatever vacation and whatever school you want. To work hard and play by the rules, you get a good life. It's that simple.”
Hundreds of supporters packed the auditorium of Middletown High School and waited for hours outside to hear the hometown hero share his vision for America in his first solo rally since accepting the vice presidential nomination.
A one time vocal critic of Trump when he first ran for president in 2016, Vance has evolved over time to be one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in Congress, online, and now on the campaign trail.
“He is not the caricature or the lie that the media has told you that he is,” Vance said of the former president. “He is a person who believes this very simple thing, and they call him a radical for it, but it happens just to be common sense: his radical idea is that America should make more stuff in its own country for its own citizens, and that the American nation belongs to the American people.”
Vance’s selection as the GOP’s vice presidential nominee is widely seen as a deepening of Trump’s populist and dire message that America will cease to exist if he is not elected this fall instead of broadening his appeal to more voters.
The sometimes fatalistic language of Trump’s campaign was echoed by Ohio state Sen. George Lang, who warned of violence if Trump did not take office again.
“I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County's JD Vance are the last chance to save our country,” Lang said at the rally. “Politically, I'm afraid if we lose this one, it's going to take a civil war to save the country – and it will be saved.”
The rally comes just 10 days after a failed assassination attempt against Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., where the former president was grazed in the ear, one attendee was killed and two others were injured.
Many in the audience wore shirts emblazoned with the iconic image of Trump, surrounded by Secret Service agents, chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight” with an upraised fist.
Vance spent most of his speech focusing on populist policies that a second Trump administration would enact, railing against China, Democratic economic plans and supporting Trump, whose “radical idea is that America should make more stuff in its own country for its own citizens, and that the American nation belongs to the American people.”
Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Republican senator and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance held a rally in his hometown today.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
J D VANCE: I will never forget where I came from. Ladies and gentlemen, I came from Middletown, Ohio. I am proud of it, and I will never forget where I came from.
CHANG: This was Vance's first major speech since being named Donald Trump's running mate. NPR's Stephen Fowler was there. Hi, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: OK, so Vance has made his whole life story a big part of his political career. And I understand that he gave the speech at the high school he graduated from. Is that right? What did he say?
FOWLER: Yeah, so hundreds of people lined up inside and outside Middletown High School. They were there to see the hometown hero, J.D. Vance, who graduated 21 years ago. It's a place he has ties to, but it's also a place where he tied his upbringing to democratic policies he said just haven't worked.
Remember, Vance rose to fame writing about the problems of Middletown and other hollowed-out Rust Belt communities. His memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," painted a controversial picture of the region. Now he's lifting them up to bolster his VP run. How? Well, Vance's speech focused on the future and his visions. There was this concept of fighting for American workers through independence for energy and schools and jobs and things. Here's one way he summed up his and Trump's vision.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VANCE: But it happens just to be common sense. His radical idea is that America should make more stuff in its own country for its own citizens, and that the American nation belongs to the American people.
CHANG: You know, I'm curious, at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee last week, there was a lot of talk from Republicans about unity. Did that at all come across in Vance's remarks today?
FOWLER: So Vance largely focused on his personal story and the larger policies he supports. He didn't really have this dire edge that Donald Trump has often brought to his lengthy addresses, including the RNC last week. You can see what Vance brings to the campaign trail. He's younger. There's more energy, enthusiasm, more optimism with the populism. And he speaks to and about the people that he's rallying. Some of the other speakers didn't get the memo, though. Here's Ohio State Senator George Lang. He warned of violence if Trump did not take office again.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GEORGE LANG: I believe, wholeheartedly, Donald Trump and Butler County's J.D. Vance are the last chance to save our country politically. I'm afraid if we lose this one, it's going to take a civil war to save the country, and it will be saved.
FOWLER: Also, keep in mind, we're in this introductory phase with Vance, and there's uncertainty about the Democratic ticket. So a lot of that messaging is in flux beyond the core make America great again policies that they want to bring.
CHANG: Yeah, let's talk about that uncertainty about the Democratic ticket. Probably the biggest news in the presidential race at the moment is Biden stepping aside, throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. How did Vance address all that?
FOWLER: Well, we largely didn't hear that much about Biden and Harris in Vance's remarks, but in a preview of what many Republicans are already saying about Biden dropping out, Vance said Biden leaving the race is, quote, "a threat to democracy."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VANCE: The idea of selecting the Democrat Party's nominee because George Soros and Barack Obama and a couple of elite Democrats got in a smoke-filled room and decided to throw Joe Biden overboard, that is not how it works.
FOWLER: It's important to note Democrats haven't had their convention yet to pick a nominee. Biden stepped aside on his own. Trump refuses to accept his 2020 defeat and a potential loss in 2024. I will note, too, the Trump campaign, so far, was crafted successfully against Biden. There's still a lot of time to figure out if they will pivot their attack for whoever the nominee is.
CHANG: That is NPR's Stephen Fowler in Middletown, Ohio. Thank you so much, Stephen.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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