 J.D. Vance accepted the vice presidential nomination. My work taught me that there is still so much talent and grit in the American heartland. There really is. He wanted to show that he's an average guy who's been through a lot. He grew up dirt poor, he says, in Appalachia. His dad left his family when he was only six years old, and his mom struggled with addiction. She was there in that crowd beaming as he told Americans that he's been through it and says he's different than those D.C. elites.