Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), formally accepting the GOP’s vice presidential nomination on Wednesday, received a loud cheer from the crowd at the Republican National Convention after he relayed a story about his gun-loving grandmother.
The account came just days after Donald Trump was shot in the ear by an attempted assassin. The former president, sitting in the audience, listened as Vance retold the tale of his “Mamaw.”
“When Mamaw died shortly before I left for Iraq in 2005, and when we went through her things, we found 19 loaded handguns,” the former Marine said, drawing sustained laughter from many observers in the convention hall.
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“The thing is, they were stashed all over her house—under her bed, in her closet, in the silverware drawer, and we wondered what was going on,” Vance continued. “It occurred to us that towards the end of her life, Mamaw couldn’t get around so well, so she was sure that no matter where she was, she was within arm’s length of whatever she needed to protect her family. That’s who we fight for. That’s the American spirit.”
Vance used a portion of his speech—surely his most widely viewed appearance in the national spotlight to date—to provide background about his upbringing, which included being raised in part by his grandmother in a rural town in Ohio.
Vance also described his undergraduate education at Ohio State University, and after cheers from Ohio delegates, joked that that could cost the Republican ticket in the battleground state of Michigan.
“We’ve gotta chill with the Ohio love. We’ve gotta win Michigan too,” Vance said early on.
“I’m sorry, Michigan, I had to get that in there,” he said later after mentioning his alma mater, acknowledging again the rivalry between OSU and the University of Michigan.
After delegates from Michigan countered by chanting “Let’s go Blue,” Vance joked: “We’ve had enough political violence.”
