Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, James David Vance, called the Americans on Wednesday to choose “new path”, voting for the Republican ex-president on November 5, before he formally accepted the party’s anointing.

He spoke of a “night of hope”, for “a celebration of what America was and, by God’s grace, will soon be again.”

The 39-year-old senator from Ohio with an unusual profile also said from the floor of the Republican convention that the evening is a “reminder of the sacred duty we have”, to defend the American way of life, the “American experience”, “to choose a new path for the our children and grandchildren.”

“JD”, in a suit and blue tie, assured that the party is going “united” to “victory”, under the gaze of Donald Trump, with a bandage in his ear, in the huge stadium in Milwaukee.

Before taking the podium, he embraced his wife Usha, an Indian-American lawyer—they met at Yale—whom he described as the embodiment of “the American dream.”

Author of a best-selling autobiography set in the rural, deindustrialized America of the forgotten, the senator, the embodiment of a quirky, populist, “anti-establishment” current, has now been in the spotlight since Monday, when he was chosen as his vice presidential candidate by Donald Trump.

This choice for any presidential candidate aims to seduce a new portion of the electorate, or make up for weaknesses, in terms of image or program.

That Mr. Vance, a man of humble origins and an unlikely path—was chosen from the Marine Corps to a career in Silicon Valley— rather it reassured the more right wing of the partywhile at the same time candidate Trump would also like to attract more moderates.

The opponent of military aid to Ukraine during his term in the Senate demanded that the billions instead of Kiev go to the border, to stop the migration flows. In his speech yesterday, he tried to give the impression that he will defend the “ordinary”, the provincial voter, constantly recalling his personal history.

After all, if Mr. Trump, 78, does return to the White House, Mr. Vance will represent the “youth” in the White House. He would become the third youngest vice president in US history.

However, his quality that probably counted more than any other for the selection was that he is now completely loyal to the former president.

Although he has harshly criticized the tycoon in the past, going so far as to compare him to Hitler in private messages, he has made a U-turn and become one of the most devoted supporters of Mr Trump and the MAGA ideology (an acronym for Make America Great Again , or “let’s make America great again”).

Before Senator Vance, the tycoon’s son, Donald Trump Jr., took the stage to praise his father’s “strength.” On Saturday, the latter narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. The crowd started chanting “Fight!” (“fight!”) — what the American right-wing candidate shouted with a raised fist and a bloodied face before being hurried off the stage by Secret Service agents.

The climax of the Republican convention, choreographed down to the last detail, is expected tonight, when Donald Trump will formally accept the nomination of the party, followed by a celebration in a sea of ​​thousands of red, white and blue balloons.

It will be his first public speech since surviving the assassination attempt.

After the convention ends, Mr. Trump plans to travel to Michigan for a campaign appearance on Saturday — exactly a week after the attempt. J. D. Vance will be by his side.