Donald Trump's vice presidential pick J.D. Vance lit up the Republican National Convention Wednesday with a speech leaning heavily on his personal story as he sought to connect his turbulent upbringing with the hardships faced by millions of Americans.
In his first speech since being tapped as Trump's vice presidential nominee on Monday, Vance offered a powerful account of growing up poor in Ohio, with no father at home and a mother hooked on drugs.
He urged voters to "choose a new path" as he accepted his nomination, telling the crowd: "The people who govern this country have failed and failed again."
The story will be familiar to readers of his best-selling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," an account of his Appalachian family and modest beginnings that gave a voice to rural, working-class resentment in left-behind America.
But it was his first real introduction to many tuning in at home and the Trump campaign is banking on the address chiming with blue-collar voters in the swing states key to winning November's election rematch against President........