By: Jacob Kessler
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jacob@thevillagereporter.com
The Republican National Convention (RNC) took place last week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The convention, held every four years since 1856, takes place in order to select the republican nominee for President.
Thousands of delegates and alternates are selected by all of the 56 states and territories of the U.S. and each of them attend the event to select their party’s nominee for President.
This year’s convention saw the selection of Donald J. Trump as the Republican Presidential Nominee. For some time now, speculation ran wild with who Trump’s pick would be for Vice President.
The list changed a few times over the course of several months but was eventually narrowed down to a select 3, at least as far as media outlets were concerned. One such possibility was Ohio Senator JD Vance.
Senator Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and was sworn into office on January 3rd, 2023. Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio, in what was described as a turbulent home. One cause of this turbulence was attributed to the jobs that disappeared from the area at the time.
Vance ended up enlisting in the Marine Corps and went on to serve in Iraq. He also graduated from The Ohio State University and Yale Law School and was then able to start a business and wrote a bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy, which was later turned into a Netflix movie.
Going back to the RNC, Donald Trump announced that his pick for Vice President would be JD Vance. With JD Vance being the Senator from Ohio, and Lt. Governor being raised in Montpelier, the significance for Northwest Ohio was made clear, regardless of one’s political leanings.
As for the nomination of JD Vance, the Lt. Governor explained to The Village Reporter that the part he played in it all, was unexpected.
“So, this is this is actually kind of an interesting story. Last week around Thursday, I was pretty confident that JD was going to be the pick, but you know, you never really know.”
“We walked into the arena on Monday and there was a lot of buzz that JD was going to be the pick and the Governor and I, I was with my daughter Kylie at the time.”
“We went and sat down in the Ohio area and sure enough, just as the convention was starting to get rolling, President Trump posted on Truth social that he had picked JD Vance to be his running mate.”
“And so, we had a lot of national media out around us asking about JD Vance, what we thought about it, and what it meant for Ohio, and I got a tap on my shoulder.”
“It was someone from the Trump team who said, hey, can you come backstage and help us out with something? And so, I didn’t even say anything. My daughter was next to me, and I said, sure.”
“I was just going to get up, I thought I was going to go backstage, you know, whatever they needed, and then they said, hey we need you to give the nominee for JD.”
“I was like sure; you know because I knew they all knew I knew JD. So, I said, sure, I’ll do it. So, I sat down with the Trump team.”
“They were in the midst of crafting a four-minute speech and they asked me to put some things in there that I knew about JD and some I knew about Ohio, and I only had a chance to read through it twice.”
“I didn’t even have a tie on because I wasn’t planning on, you know, being on national television when I walked into the arena that morning so, I borrowed a tie and went up there and let it rip and had a great time really enjoying the experience of celebrating an Ohioan being nominated for the vice presidency, for the greatest country in the world, and that was just a wonderful experience.”
The Lt. Governor also went on to express his thoughts about the new Trump-Vance ticket. “So, I know what it’s like to be wingman, he’s the Vice-Presidential Candidate and I am the Lt. Governor.”
“I think he will be a great wingman for Donald Trump. He understands what Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again vision is all about, puts America first and he can be an articulate defender and promotor of that agenda. He will do an amazing job as a candidate and an even better job as the Vice President of the United States.”
Lt. Governor Husted continued and gave a brief history of who JD Vance is. “He grew up in Middletown, Ohio. He grew up in tough circumstances with poverty, drugs, and violence in the world that he lived in.”
“Through all of that, he persevered, became a Marine, graduated from The Ohio State, eventually Yale Law School, became a successful businessperson and really is the living embodiment of the American Dream. Coming from nothing, all the way from the bottom, and going all the way to the top.”
“It’s a pretty special story but he is also just a normal guy like everybody else. He’s a husband and a father who is trying to balance all of these things. I think he did a great job with his speech talking about that.”
“It would also be an amazing thing for Ohio to have somebody in the Vice President’s Office where, when we have issues, whether it’s with trying to provide enough energy to Ohio’s growing economy, navigating the EPA, or some type of natural disaster that we need assistance with from the Federal Government, we know that we can count on JD to look out for Ohio.”
Throughout the conversation, the Lt. Governor was also asked a few questions that covered both the local area and the nation as a whole.
One of those questions touched on the division seen in so many places, but also the unity some places like Northwest Ohio seem to share in. The response is as follows.
“I have been going to the Republic Conventions for twenty years. This was the most united we’ve been in my memory because, in the last two cycles the Republicans had been divided over Donald Trump and I think that two things happened.”
“First of all, the Biden Presidency made Republicans realize that, even though we may have disagreements within the party, the true adversary of our values is the radical left that occupies the Federal Government in Washington D.C. and is financed by the elites.”
“So, we came together understanding that we have a common adversary. You add on top of that the assassination attempt that occurred with the President on last Saturday, and the fact that he showed strength in a moment of crisis, that was a truly uniting moment in the Republican Party.”
“I see them being able to move the country forward because they understand the plight of average people and why those people are so upset. The border crisis has really clarified to people that the radical left agenda coming out of Washington is not focused on the means of Americans, it’s focused on the means or desires of out-of-touch people that run our country.”
“They don’t truly understand that when illegals come across the border, they bring drugs into our communities, they lower wages for people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder and make it harder on working people and families all across this country.”
“They don’t understand that. But Donald Trump and JD Vance do, and they will fight for Made-In-America, they will fight for the jobs that come with that, they will fight to secure our borders and keep our communities safer.”
“Once they go out and articulate that and the voters know they are committed to doing something about it on day 1, that will be a winning message. But it’s the doing something about it on day 1 that the voters want to see, and they believe Donald Trump has the fortitude to do that.”
Lt. Governor Husted also had a few words to say about the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump during his rally held in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“So, we were an inch away from chaos with the assassination attempt of the former President and Presidential candidate. When I saw the video footage and saw that Donald Trump had been shot, I was scared, I was prayerful, scared for our nation, prayerful for our nation.”
“When I saw him get to his feet, pump his fists, and ask the crowd to keep fighting, I knew it was a moment of strength that rarely would be witnessed in our lifetime.”
“Donald Trump had the presence of mind in that moment, he knew, for people in the crowd and people around the world, he needed to show that sign of strength. That really, I think was great for America that he had the fortitude to do that.”
“But in the aftermath, we see a secret service that’s made up of many brave men and women but led by incompetent people who seem to prize DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) over merit.”
“We see a secret service director who should resign for the sake of the agency, to restore confidence in that agency, and to reassure America that the follow-up investigation will be thorough and un-biased.”
Next, the Lt. Governor was asked if there was a short list in play for who could potentially replace JD Vance in the Senate if the pair win the election.
“It’s 100% the governor’s decision, but what I will tell you is that we need to stay focused on winning in November. I played in fifty college football games, and we only lost 6. One of them we lost and were up by 21 points at halftime.”
“The reason is because, when you’re in a competition, and right now we’re in a political competition, everything looks great. But the Democrats are going to pull out all the stops. It appears they are going to try to replace the candidate.”
“The media will try to revise history and promote Joe Biden’s successor or Joe Biden, and Republicans are going to have to stay focused on winning, and anything we do that takes away from that is a distraction.”
Lastly, the Lt. Governor was asked if there was anything he would like people to know, if there was anything left out, or even just something he felt was important and should be shared.
“It was an amazing honor to be asked to nominate JD. It was a thrill to stand up in front of America and have the opportunity to nominate the man I believe will be the next Vice President of the United States, and I am grateful for the Trump team since it was the Trump team that asked for me to do it.”
