JD Vance, Trump’s pick for vice president, will introduce himself to a national audience at the RNC

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump ’s running mate JD Vance will introduce himself to a national audience Wednesday as he addresses the Republican National Convention.

The Ohio senator’s headlining address will be his first speech as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. He’s a relative political unknown who rapidly morphed in recent years from a severe critic of Trump to an aggressive defender.

Vance, 39, is positioned to become the next potential leader of the former president’s political movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party and busted many longtime political norms. The first millennial to join a major party ticket, he joins the race when questions about the age of the men at the top of the tickets — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns.

Trump, as the presidential nominee, is expected to speak Thursday, the convention’s final night.

Vance is expected to lean into his biography, as someone who grew up in hardscrabble Kentucky and Ohio and became a Marine, an Ivy League graduate, a businessman and a bestselling author with his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” The book exploring his blue-collar roots made him a national name when it was published in 2016 and was seen as a window into some of the cultural forces that propelled Trump to the White House.

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