Vance avoids Iran war in Dallas convention speech
Vice President JD Vance closed out the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on Thursday night with a speech aimed at pitching himself as Donald Trump’s political heir, drawing the liveliest response any speaker besides the president received across the two-day gathering. The Guardian reported that Vance entered the address needing to “walk a tightrope” — presenting his own case to the Republican base without breaking from the “notoriously sensitive Trump.” As Vance walked to the stage, the crowd chanted “JD, JD,” with some shouting that he should be the 2028 nominee. “We gotta take care of business this November, then we’ll worry about what comes next,” Vance responded with a smile.
A poll reported by The Guardian found Vance the favorite choice among likely Republican primary voters at 43 percent, with Rubio at 21 percent and Trump Jr at 7 percent.
Vance opened his remarks by running through Republican grievances and channeling Trump’s stance on immigration. He told the arena that two years ago “we were tired of being called racist for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous.” He praised Trump as “the toughest SOB in American politics,” pausing repeatedly as the crowd cheered. He invoked the recent birth of his fourth child, saying he had been looking at “the future of this country through the eyes of the future of my son” and at “the birthright of this newest of Americans.”
The loudest ovation of the evening came when Vance responded to a protester who briefly interrupted the speech. Vance claimed the protester was waving a Mexican flag, then added: “Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there I’ll buy you the plane ticket.”
Vance moved through themes familiar from the Make America Great Again movement: attacking transgender rights, extolling American manufacturing and religious freedom, and accusing Democrats of “doubling down on the crazy.” Addressing Democratic “radicals” whom he accused of wanting to destroy the nuclear American family, he boomed: “Stay the hell away from our kids.”
The Guardian reported that Vance showed “a penchant” for Trump’s “baseless statements,” repeating Trump’s assertion that some Democrats in New York “cheered on” the 7 October massacre of Israelis. “What is it that drives this new generation of radical Democrats? It’s not new policies. They’ll say the same stuff: defund the police, abolish the border, the green new scam. We’ve heard all this stuff before,” Vance said. He then tried out a new line: “I think that what’s new about them is what motivates them is a new type of hardcore hatred.”
Vance paid tribute to Charlie Kirk, the activist who was assassinated in Utah exactly one year earlier, addressing Kirk’s children, who were not in the arena. “History will record that your father was a great man,” Vance said, adding: “Those of us who loved your dad, we know him as something even better than a great man — he was a good man.” The Guardian noted that Kirk endorsed Trump’s stolen-election lies and promoted the racist great replacement theory.
Foreign policy was conspicuous by its absence. Vance did not address the Iran war directly, though The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump’s advisers have raised the prospect that the war could continue through the rest of Trump’s term. Last week, Vance rejected the use of the word “war” but said he would not set “artificial lines” on ending the conflict. In an oblique reference, Vance invoked Kirk’s disdain for military engagement. “Charlie hated war,” Vance said, then pleaded with undecided voters not to abandon the party over policy differences. “What I’m asking you to do is do what Charlie did: do not throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said. “Don’t don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.”
Vance was not the only Republican with presidential ambitions appearing in Dallas. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who switched parties to support Trump in 2024, delivered a well-received speech earlier Thursday praising Trump and attacking Democrats. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, speaking in his home state, declared: “They hate Christians, they hate Jews, they hate the capitalism, they hate the constitution and they hate America.” The Guardian reported that Cruz offered no evidence for his claims.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not address the convention; he was on a tour of South America. Both Rubio and Cruz ran against Trump in 2016, when Trump dubbed Rubio “Little Marco” and suggested at the time that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F Kennedy.
Vance ended his address by shouting over jubilant applause that Trump was the “greatest president,” then yielded the stage to Trump to close out the convention. The Guardian noted that Vance has never publicly attracted Trump’s ire — and will want to keep it that way as he seeks to take on party leadership in two years’ time.