JD Vance calls for a 'big tent' GOP in VP nominee acceptance speech

MILWAUKEE — Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a right-wing populist known for his unbending opinions, introduced himself Wednesday as a vice presidential candidate open to compromise and eager for unity, but unapologetically drawn to hot-button debates.

“We have a big tent in this party, on everything from national security to economic policy,” Vance told Republican National Convention delegates as he accepted their nomination to be Donald Trump’s running mate. “But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is: We love this country, and we are united to win. And our disagreements actually make us stronger.”

Vance, 39, made the case for himself in generational terms, at one point recalling how he was in the fourth grade when President Joe Biden, then a senator, voted for a North American Free Trade Agreement that would disillusion many working-class voters. He made the case for Trump by casting him as a resilient figure in the face of criminal charges and, more recently, an assassination attempt that left the former president with a wounded right ear.

“They accused him of being a tyrant,” Vance said of Trump. "They accused him of being a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm, literally right after an assassin nearly took his life. He remembered the victims of the terrible attack, especially the brave Corey Comperatore, who gave his life to protect his family. … And then President Trump flew to Milwaukee and got back to work.”

Most pointedly, Vance offered himself as the campaign’s tip of the spear in the industrial heartland — states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin that the GOP hopes to pry away from Biden and the Democrats this fall.