Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, gave his first speech since receiving the Republican Party’s nomination for vice president on Wednesday, and it could offer a look into his future role on the presidential campaign trail.
The “Hillbilly Elegy” author mentioned his home state of Ohio 12 times during his remarks. “We gotta chill with the Ohio love. We gotta win Michigan too here,” Vance, an Ohio State University alumnus, said to the crowd.
The second most-mentioned states were Michigan and Pennsylvania, with both being talked about by Vance six times.
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Kentucky was also a significant state for Vance, as he spent a portion of his childhood there with his grandmother, “Mamaw.” The state, which differs from the others as it traditionally votes red, was also mentioned by the Republican four times.
Vance also referenced three times the pivotal Midwestern battleground state of Wisconsin, where the Republican National Convention is taking place.
His heavy emphasis on these Rust Belt states comes as former President Trump has already signaled his intent to use Vance to his advantage in Midwestern swing states.
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“[Trump] just said, ‘Look, I think I’ve got to go save this country. I think you’re the guy who could help me in the best way,'” Vance recalled Trump’s phone call to him on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
“You can help me govern, you can help me win, you can help me in some of these Midwestern states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and so forth,” he said Trump told him.
Vance was elected to the Senate in Ohio in 2022, where he has served since. Vance has significant name identification in Ohio as he’s focused much of his time in Congress on workers and families in the state. For example, Vance has continued to be active in pursuing regulatory reform for railways in the wake of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which caused chemicals to spill in the area, despite the story no longer being regularly featured in the news cycle.
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The senator also made headlines when he joined striking United Auto Workers members in Toledo, Ohio, breaking from a traditionally anti-union Republican Party stance.
Both Trump and Vance appear to see the Ohio Republican as a key to relating to disaffected White workers in the Rust Belt. In a 2016 interview following his memoir’s release, Vance explained, “I may be White, but I do not identify with the WASPs of the Northeast. Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class White Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree.”
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“To these folks, poverty’s the family tradition. Their ancestors were day laborers in the southern slave economy, sharecroppers after that, coal miners after that, and machinists and mill workers during more recent times. Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks or White trash. I call them neighbors, friends and family,” he said at the time.
In his Wednesday remarks, Vance made a promise to this very group. “To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, in Ohio, and every corner of our nation. I promise you this. I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” he said.
Shortly after the announcement of Vance as Trump’s running mate, the campaign announced an indoor rally in Michigan this Saturday, when both Trump and Vance will speak to voters at a rally in Grand Rapids. The event will notably be the first rally since the attempted assassination of Trump at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend.
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