MILWAUKEE, July 18, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - 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 Joe Biden.

Vance touched on trade, foreign policy and the drug epidemic -- and on Trump's policies for addressing them -- but he devoted much of the speech to his own experiences.

He emphasized his background as a former Marine, making him the first veteran on a major party ticket since John McCain ran for president in 2008.

- Big moment -

The one-term senator, who will be just 40 on inauguration day, would be the third-youngest vice president in history -- and one of the least experienced -- if 78-year-old Trump defeats Biden.

His effusive praise of Trump is in marked contrast to the hostility he voiced as he toured television studios in 2016 with a book to sell.

Vance was an uncompromising "Never Trumper" at the time of his new boss's election win in 2016, labeling the populist, hard-right tycoon "a moral disaster" and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

He reinvented himself when he entered politics and ultimately won Trump's endorsement in the 2022 Ohio Senate race.

Vance has since grown into cheerleader-in-chief for Trump's anti-immigrant agenda and isolationist foreign policy -- notably including opposition to US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Even before his big moment, Vance was a hit with the party faithful in Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum arena.

They rewarded him with boisterous applause as he arrived with his wife, Usha, on the opening day Monday to take his place with the Trump family in the front row.

While Vance reinforces Trump's appeal to the hardline base, he offers little chance of broadening the tent to more moderate voters and women.

He is further to the right than Trump on some issues including abortion, where he embraces calls for federal legislation.

- Ultra-loyal -

Some 50,000 Republicans have descended on the shores of Lake Michigan for the four-day convention, which came with the country reeling from the botched attempt by a gunman to assassinate Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The attack -- which killed one bystander and left the ex-president with a bloodied ear -- has dominated proceedings, with the opening day's highlight an appearance from a defiant Trump sporting a bandage on his right ear.

The Republican convention has emphasized party unity behind Trump, banishing the torrent of scandals that range from his role in attempts to overturn the 2020 election to his criminal conviction in a New York court this May.

However, Trump's once ultra-loyal vice president from 2016-2020, Mike Pence, has refused to give his endorsement and was not at the convention.

And while Trump has been calling for unity, Vance is one of the most partisan and divisive members of Congress.

He immediately claimed after the shooting that Democrats' rhetoric had "led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Trump is set to formally accept his party's nomination with the hotly anticipated keynote address on Thursday.

Earlier in the day Vance saluted Trump's bravery in remarks at a finance event -- his first campaign stop as Trump's running mate -- and assailed Biden as a failed leader.

"Let's get rid of him," he said, "and let's bring Donald Trump back to the White House."