The Republican appeal to working-class voters is likely to intensify with Trump’s selection of Vance
Donald Trump’s party assailed President Joe Biden’s stewardship of the economy, hours after the Republican standard-bearer selected US Senator JD Vance as his running mate, highlighting a populist message aimed at retaking control of the White House.
Trump’s selection of Vance, 39, also amounts to his anointing an heir apparent to potentially extend the populist orthodoxy that’s reshaped the Republican party going back to his 2016 run.
That doctrine was on display on the convention’s opening night in Milwaukee. The line-up features business executives and lawmakers with close ties to Wall Street and the head of the influential Teamsters union, making the case for Trump’s approach, which pledges to renew expiring tax cuts, slash regulations and hit other countries — both allies and adversaries — with tariffs.
“America, the land of opportunity, just doesn’t feel like that anymore,” said Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a former Carlyle Group Inc. co-chief executive officer, who was seen as a favorite of Wall Street to be Trump’s running mate.
Trump’s push for tarrifs, which he has said could offset the cost of some tax cuts, however, threaten to boost prices for consumers and undermine economic growth.
The parade of speakers on Monday, though, depicted an America in which they said working class families are struggling because of Biden’s agenda, seeking to tap into polls showing unease with the incumbent’s economic policies.
That anxiety has been fueled by persistent inflation that has hammered US households and overshadowed Biden’s efforts to sell the public on investments in domestic manufacturing and infrastructure under his watch.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, whom Trump considered for a spot on the ticket, cast the Republican challenger’s approach as one which would help American families devastated by high prices and high taxes recover.
“I see our heartland filled with huge American factories powered by abundant American energy building what American needs, creating generational wealth for blue-collar workers,” Scott said.
An ad during the convention touted Trump’s pledge to exempt tipped wages from taxes, a policy that portends to appeal to younger voters and people of color. The no-taxes-on-tips idea drew big applause from the delegates gathered in the convention hall.
Attendees waived signs saying “Make Housing Affordable Again” and “Make America Wealthy Again.”
Venture capitalist David Sacks lambasted Democrats, who he said “recklessly spent trillions of dollars of wasteful US government programs, setting off the worst inflation since Jimmy Carter.”
Sacks has been a symbol of Trump’s changing fortunes with the business community and has been a conduit to boost the Republican’s support and fundraising in Silicon Valley. Sacks’ criticism of Biden’s support for Ukraine in its war to repel Russia’s invasion, however, drew only tepid applause.
Populist Appeal
The Republican appeal to working-class voters is likely to intensify with Trump’s selection of Vance — a populist protege famous for Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir about his upbringing in rural poverty, and who has been a strident defender of the former president’s worldview in the Senate.
Vance is from Ohio, a state Trump won easily in 2016 and 2020, but his value to the ticket will be in Midwestern swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Polls show voters rate the economy as a defining issue for the election — and in many of those states rank-and-file union members are worried about the impact of Biden’s transition to electric vehicles on jobs and wages.
Biden and Trump have waged a furious battle for union workers in those states — a fight which saw the president win the endorsement of the United Auto Workers after joining a picket line — and both have courted the support of the Teamsters.
Trump has also sought to use his economic message to broaden his electoral base, seeking to chip away at the Black and Latino voters who have been a bedrock of the Democratic party amid polls showing Biden’s support among those blocs has softened.
—With assistance from Nancy Cook.
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