July 18 2024
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance formally accepted the Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States.
Donald Trump Jr. said: "Look at me and my friend J.D. Vance. A kid from Appalachia and a kid from Trump Tower...We grew up worlds apart, yet now we're both fighting side by side to save the country we love. And by the way, J.D. Vance is going to make one hell of a vice president."
Future Second Lady Usha Vance: "[J.D.'s] goals in this new role are the same that he has pursued for our family: to keep people safe, to create opportunities, to build a better life and to solve problems with an open mind."
Highlights from Senator Vance's speech:
Senator Vance: "Tonight is a night of hope -- a celebration of what America once was, and with God's grace, what it will soon be again. And it is a reminder of the sacred duty we have to preserve the American experiment -- to choose a new path for our children and grandchildren."
Senator Vance: "That's the man I've gotten to know personally over the last few years. He's tough, but he cares about people. He can stand defiant against an assassin one moment and call for national healing the next."
Senator Vance: "Some people tell me I’ve lived the American Dream, and of course, they are right...But the American Dream that always counted most was not starting a business or becoming a senator...My most important American dream was becoming a good husband and a good dad. I wanted to give my kids the things I never had growing up."
Senator Vance: "After 9/11, I did what thousands of other young men my age did in that time of soaring patriotism and love of country: I enlisted in the United States Marines."
Senator Vance: "Things didn't work out well for a lot of kids I grew up with. Every now and then, I will get a call from a relative from back home who asks, 'did you know so and so?... they died of an overdose.' America's ruling class wrote the checks. Communities like mine paid the price."
Senator Vance: "Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington for longer than I've been alive...For half-a-century, he's been the champion of every major policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer."
Senator Vance: "From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the great recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this Country have failed and failed again...That is of course, until a guy named Donald J. Trump came along."
Senator Vance: "Joe Biden's inflation crisis is really an affordability crisis, and many of the people that I grew up with can't afford to pay more for groceries, more for gas, more for rent. And that's exactly what Joe Biden's economy has given them."
Senator Vance: "Mr. President, I will never take for granted the trust you have put in me. And what an honor it is to help achieve the extraordinary vision that you have for this country. Now I pledge to every American, no matter your Party, I will give you everything I have."