A vocal climate change sceptic who disdains US support for Ukraine, Vance put forward a policy agenda tightly focused on 'making America great again'.
ADVERTISEMENTFirst-term Ohio Senator JD Vance formally accepted the Republican Party's vice-presidential nomination for the upcoming US election on Wednesday, delivering a speech in which he outlined his own political and economic agenda.
This included bolstering the US's manufacturing sector, radically reducing the country's reliance on foreign workers and energy, and shoring up domestic employment as opposed to buying goods manufactured overseas.
The Midwestern military veteran said he would advocate for "forgotten" communities by pursuing policies to make the US "a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family and your country will be possible once again".
"Together, we will protect the wages of American workers and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of American citizens," he said.
"I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”
Vance made clear that in his view, bringing back "great American factories" relied on the re-election of former US President Donald Trump, and a rejection of what he described as an out-of-touch elite.
"Thanks to these policies that Biden and other out-of-touch politicians in Washington gave us," he said, "our country was flooded with cheap Chinese goods, with cheap foreign labour — and in the decades to come, deadly Chinese fentanyl.
"Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price."
Vance, who has been a staunch critic of US military support for Ukraine, also attacked the supposed dependency of the country's military allies, stating that he would ensure they "share in the burden of securing world peace".
"No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer," he declared.
The climate change sceptic also described the Biden administration's environmental policies as a "Green New Scam" that will undermine the US economy.
Biden struggles
As the Republicans prepare for Trump's speech on the last night of their convention, Biden has announced a COVID-19 diagnosis — this as concerns mount that the 81-year-old president is not up to the task of winning re-election and then leading the country for another four years.
A disastrous debate with his main political adversary as well as increasingly frequent public slip-ups, have lead many party insiders, major donors and increasingly senior elected Democrats to call on him to withdraw his candidacy.
However, Biden continues to insist he will remain the Democratic candidate, and many members of his party have criticised those who are publicly questioning his chances of winning another term.