J.D. Vance’s Populist Pitch

When J.D. Vance addressed the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, he wasn’t just introducing himself to the nation. He was selling a political ideology. To that end, Vance chronicled his hardscrabble upbringing to champion the core tenets of Trumpism.

In a 35-minute speech, Vance recounted his childhood in Appalachia, surrounded by societal and economic decay. In Middleton, Ohio, he was raised by his grandmother “Mamaw” as his mother struggled with addiction. It was a place, he said, that had been “cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington.” After providing his own narrative biography, Vance offered a vision for rescuing the U.S from inexorable decline: protectionist trade agreements, restrictionist immigration policies, and a withdrawal from overseas entanglements.

By tying his life story to an ideological creed, Vance, 39, was making a generational pitch to preserve Donald Trump’s brand of right-wing populist nationalism. “If this movement of ours is going to succeed, and if this country is going to thrive, our leaders have to remember that America is a nation,” he said. “Its citizens deserve leaders who put its interests first.”

Days after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, Vance extolled the man who chose him as his running mate, recalling the dramatic moment when Secret Service agents rushed Trump off the stage but Trump stopped to pump his fist in the air and chant “Fight” to the crowd. “Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump and then look at that photo of him defiant—fist in the air,” he said. “Even in his most perilous moment we were on his mind.”

Vance called for national unity in the wake of the shooting, echoing a consistent message from Republican officials throughout the convention. “We have a big tent on this party, on everything from national security to economic policy,” Vance said. “But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is we love this country and we are united to win.”

Trump campaign officials say that the assassination attempt gives Trump an opportunity to expand his support. After returning from the Butler Memorial Hospital to Bedminster, N.J., Trump rewrote his entire speech, which he will deliver at the convention on Thursday. Instead of attacking President Joe Biden, he plans to reflect on his survival and try to unify the country, according to sources familiar with the process. Many of the speakers throughout the confab in Milwaukee have struck a similar note, including Vance.

But when Vance wasn’t calling for national unity, he was praising the virtues of nationalism. “One of the things that you hear people say sometimes is that America is an idea,” he said. “But America is not just an idea. It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.”

At one point, Vance pointed to a plot he owns in eastern Kentucky where he plans to be buried. The cemetery holds seven generations of Americans who Vance said fought in wars and built the country. “That’s not just an idea, my friends,” he said. “That’s not just a set of principles. Even though the ideas and the principles are great, that is a homeland. That is our homeland. People will not fight for abstractions, but they will fight for their home.”

Vance also cited his marriage to his wife Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, to validate his support for Trump’s draconian immigration proposals, such as building a wall on the southern border and deporting more than 11 million migrants. “When we allow newcomers into our American family,” he said, “we allow them on our terms.”

Vance ignored his vulnerabilities. He never brought up his conversion from Never Trumper to MAGA faithful. He never mentioned the hot-button issue of abortion; in the past, Vance opposed exceptions for rape and incest but has recently adopted Trump’s stance that abortion policies should be left to the states. And he never mentioned election fraud or the 2020 election; he has said he would have refused to certify Biden’s victory if he were Vice President at the time.

The Trump campaign has bet that they are in the driver’s seat of the election and can double down on the core MAGA platform while making a tonal shift to appeal to moderate voters. Given Vance’s blue-collar roots, they see him as a powerful emissary in the Rust Belt, particularly in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. “I promise you this,” he said. “I will be a Vice President who never forgets where he came from.”

If Vance’s convention speech is any indication, the former President also sees him as the future of the America First movement, someone who can keep Trumpism alive after Trump himself exits the scene. “Mr. President,” Vance said. “I will never take for granted the trust you have put in me.”