Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate, US Senator J.D. Vance, presented himself to the nation on Wednesday night as the son of a forgotten industrial Ohio town who will fight for the working class if elected in November.
In chronicling his hardscrabble journey from a difficult childhood to the US Marines, Yale Law School, venture capitalism and finally the US Senate, Vance, 39, introduced himself to Americans while using his story to argue that he understands their everyday struggles.
"I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands and loved their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts," Vance said, formally accepting the party's nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. "But it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America's ruling class in Washington."
He accused "career politicians" like President Joe Biden - who Vance noted has been in politics longer that he has been alive - of destroying communities like his with ill-fated trade policies and foreign wars.
"President Trump's vision is so simple and yet so powerful" he said. "We're done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We'll commit to the working man."
In a sign of his potential value to the ticket, he also repeatedly appealed to the working and middle classes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin specifically - three Rust Belt swing states likely to decide the Nov. 5 election.
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