Vance takes up the theme of “Hillbilly Elegy” in his RNC speech and gives America’s small towns a voice

Republican Ohio State Senator JD Vance on Wednesday recalled his childhood and the decline of small-town America as he grew up, pointing the finger at President Joe Biden and other career politicians in Washington.

In his speech at the Republican Party Convention, Hillbilly Elegy The author spoke about the fading prospects of realizing the American dream and stressed that former President Donald Trump would give a voice to American workers, whom he felt Washington had neglected.

“President Trump represents America’s last great hope of restoring what, if lost, might never be found again: a country where a working-class boy, born far from the centers of power, can stand on this stage as the next Vice President of the United States of America,” he said.

Vance first rose to prominence with his memoirs, in which he examined the socioeconomic problems of the Appalachian region. The Ohio Republican later stressed the importance of speaking for the average American.

“But my fellow Americans here on the stage and in this moment at home watching, this is not about me. This is about all of us and who we are fighting for,” he said.

“It’s about the autoworker in Michigan who wonders why out-of-touch politicians are destroying their jobs. It’s about the factory worker in Wisconsin who makes things with his hands and takes pride in American craftsmanship,” Vance continued. “It’s about the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio who doesn’t understand why Joe Biden is willing to buy energy from small-time dictators around the world when he could buy it from his own citizens, here in our own country.”

“I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved their God, their family, their community, and their country with all their hearts,” he said. “But it was also a place that had been pushed aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington. When I was in fourth grade, a career politician named Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico.”

“When I was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named Joe Biden made China a lucrative trade deal that destroyed even more good American middle-class manufacturing jobs,” he continued. “When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the devastating invasion of Iraq, and every step along the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio or the neighboring town in Pennsylvania or Michigan and in states across the country, jobs were being shipped overseas and our children were being sent to war.”

“Thanks to these policies imposed on us by Biden and other out-of-touch politicians in Washington, our country has been flooded with cheap Chinese goods, cheap foreign labor, and, in the decades that followed, deadly Chinese fentanyl,” he continued. “Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price.”

He continued to point to Trump’s own accomplishments, merits and his desire to help communities like his.

“My work has taught me that there is still so much talent and determination in the heart of America. There really is. But for those places to thrive, my friends, we need a leader who will fight for the people who built this country,” he said.

“We need a leader who is not in the pocket of big business but is accountable to union and non-union workers alike, a leader who will not sell out to multinational corporations but will stand up for American business and American industry, a leader who will reject the new green scam of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and fight to take back our great American factories. We need PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” he affirmed.

“I am overwhelmed with gratitude and can tell you that I officially accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America,” he also said.