For many Americans, tonight will be their first real introduction to Trumpism's 39-year-old heir.
Why it matters: Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) would be the youngest vice president elected since the Civil War, with a backstory already on Netflix and an ideology that meshes with the GOP's most loyal young Trumpers.
Vance will speak tonight shortly after Donald Trump Jr., his close friend who helped forge Vance's connection with former President Trump.
"He's the one guy in that movement that's a current politician that's out there that actually really speaks to sort of the America First people and isn't like sort of we'll be right back to the establishment, let's go back to the neocon warmongering," Don Jr. told Axios' Mike Allen yesterday at an Axios House event.
Zoom in: Vance has shifted drastically since the release of his bestseller "Hillbilly Elegy" in 2016. He blames the media for his initial stance.
Vance told Charlie Rose in 2016 that he was "a Never Trump guy" and he "never liked him," Axios' Jacob Knutson reports in a recap of Vance's evolution.
In 2021, Vance met with Trump to apologize for his prior comments, the N.Y. Times reports.
By the time Vance won election to the Senate in 2022, he was one of the most loyal Trumpists in the GOP.
