MILWAUKEE — Republicans on the floor of the Republican National Convention cheered Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who was named their vice presidential candidate on Monday, while Democrats slammed his opposition to abortion rights, calling him inexperienced and a “clone” of Donald Trump.
Reactions poured in from across American politics as Republican Party delegates gathered at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, formally nominated Vance just hours after Trump announced his choice earlier that day.
President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, told reporters there was no difference between Trump and Vance.
“Trump clone on the issues,” Biden said. “I don’t see any difference.”
The reactions from Republicans and Trump family members were starkly different.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who formally nominated Vance at the RNC convention, said that “the vice presidency is an office of sacred trust.”
“A man who accepts this nomination accepts with it an incredible responsibility to provide wise counsel to the president, to represent America abroad, to preside over the Senate and to be ready to lead our nation at a moment’s notice,” Husted said. “Such a man must have in his heart an attitude of ‘America first.’”
The moment of nomination
Vance stood on the arena floor with his wife, Usha Vance, at his side as Husted delivered his official nomination speech.
Throughout the speech, images of Vance were displayed on screens in the vast arena.
Bernie Moreno, the GOP candidate who tried to unseat Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown this November, filed to nominate Vance, which was approved unanimously.
“For J.D. Vance, ‘America First’ is not just a slogan. It’s his North Star,” Moreno said. “He’s lived by it every moment of his life and career. He knows what it’s like to live in poverty, forgotten by Washington politicians. He’s committed to making sure no American is ever forgotten again.”
Florida Rep. Kat Cammack said during a brief interview with States Newsroom on the floor of the RNC convention that Vance brings “a lot of enthusiasm” to the list, in part because “the base loves him.”
“We now have an opportunity to go forward and do it ourselves,” Cammack said.
Donald Trump Jr. spoke to reporters at a Fiserv forum to push back against criticism that Vance doesn’t have enough legislative experience after less than two years in Congress.
“My father had no political experience, he went to peace deals in the Middle East, the best jobs economy in the world, incredible prosperity for everyone, with no experience,” Trump Jr. said. “If experience is a guide to policy in Washington, it is bad.”
Montana Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, congratulated Vance in a statement, saying Trump made a “great choice” and that Vance “is connecting with the working-class voters we need to win this election.”
Some Republicans on Trump’s shortlist for vice president have reacted positively.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted “#TrumpVance2024!!!” though others who were not elected did not immediately respond.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum he said on social media On Monday afternoon, he said Vance’s “small-town roots and service to country make him a strong voice for the America First agenda,” adding that he looked forward to campaigning for the Trump-Vance party.
Biden campaign cites abortion stance
Biden’s campaign held a call with reporters Monday afternoon after Trump announced that Vance would be his vice presidential running mate.
Campaign officials, joined by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and abortion rights activists, criticized Vance’s actions and accused him of supporting the abortion ban without exception in cases of rape or incest.
They also warned that Vance would play a key role in the Trump administration by supporting conservative policy ideas such as the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 action plan — a recent focus of the Biden campaign.
Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters that “Vance won Trump’s race decisively, passing the MAGA test with flying colors.”
“You know, Trump picked JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate because he will do what Mike Pence would not do on January 6th — he will bend over backwards to allow Trump to advance his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and certainly no matter the harm to the American people,” O’Malley Dillon said, referring to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that delayed the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
“As Trump and Vance now enter the general election, they are facing off against the Biden-Harris candidates, and I would certainly take that matchup any day of the week, and twice on Sunday,” O’Malley told Dillon, in an apparent nod to the campaign’s defense of Biden in recent weeks as prominent donors and Democrats urged Biden’s support. withdraw from the race after his indigent performance in the debate.
Campaign officials said Vice President Kamala Harris has already accepted CBS’s invitation to the vice presidential debate and is willing to meet with Vance.
“VP will go to JD Vance on this,” Warren said on the call. “She’s strong, she knows what she’s talking about, and she’s not budging an inch.”
The Democratic National Committee issued a statement Monday afternoon saying November will bring “the most important election of our lifetimes, and Donald Trump’s decision today to add J.D. Vance to the Republican Party ticket has made the stakes even higher.”
“JD Vance epitomizes MAGA — with an out-of-touch, extreme agenda and plans to help Trump impose his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” said DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison.
“Let us be clear: a Trump-Vance election would undermine our democracy, our freedoms, and our future,” Harrison continued in the statement.
The National Women’s Rights Action Fund responded to Trump’s election, calling Vance an “extremist.”
“Women and girls deserve to live in a country where they can make their own decisions freely and live without fear,” Fatima Goss Graves, president of the Action Fund, said in a statement. “That’s why we must act to prevent Donald Trump and JD Vance from gaining the power to impose a national abortion ban and impose their radical MAGA agenda on all of us.”
