Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate, US Senator JD Vance, presented himself to the nation as the son of a forgotten industrial Ohio town who will fight for the working class if elected in November.
In chronicling his hardscrabble journey from a difficult childhood to the US Marines, Yale Law School, venture capitalism and finally the US Senate, Mr Vance, 39, introduced himself to Americans while using his story to argue that he understands their everyday struggles.
"I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands and loved their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts," Mr Vance said, formally accepting the party's nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
"But it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America's ruling class in Washington."
He accused "career politicians" like President Joe Biden, who Mr Vance noted has been in politics longer that he has been alive, of destroying communities like his with ill-fated trade policies and foreign wars.
"President Trump's vision is so simple and yet so powerful," he said.
"We're done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We'll commit to the working man."
In a sign of his potential value to the ticket, he also repeatedly appealed to the working and middle classes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin specifically, three Rust Belt swing states likely to decide the 5 November election.
Mr Vance described his grandmother, "Mamaw", who raised him as his mother struggled with addiction - and acknowledged his mother, Beverly, who was on hand to watch him speak.
"I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober," Mr Vance said.
"I love you, mom."
A visibly moved Beverly Vance mouthed, "I love you, JD," while delegates gave her a standing ovation.
Mr Vance's prime-time debut, less than two years after assuming his first public office, capped a meteoric rise that coincided with his transformation. He is one of several high-profile republicans, such as US senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, whose reversal from critic to loyalist has underscored Mr Trump's takeover of the party.
Author of the bestselling memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy', Mr Vance has helped to shape Mr Trump's populist instincts into a policy agenda that would pull the US back from its dominant role in global affairs. As the first millennial on a major party's ticket, he is well positioned to carry Mr Trump's Make America Great Again movement beyond a potential second Trump term.
Mr Vance has opposed military aid for Ukraine and defended Mr Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. He has argued the government must do more to assist the working class by restricting imports, raising the minimum wage and cracking down on corporate largesse.
Democrats have already gone on offence against Mr Vance, highlighting his strict anti-abortion views and arguing that he will advance an extreme, far-right agenda in office.
Mr Biden, 81, was forced off the campaign trail after testing positive for Covid-19. The illness added to Mr Biden's woes, after three tumultuous weeks in which he has struggled to reassure panicked democrats that he can still defeat Mr Trump following a poor debate performance on 27 June.
Mr Trump, his right ear still bandaged after it was grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet at a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, walked into the convention to roars for the third straight night, with James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" playing throughout the arena.
Hard-hitting speeches
The evening featured a hard-hitting, emotional video in which families of soldiers killed during the 2021 US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan blamed Mr Biden for their deaths.
The relatives then took the stage and voiced their anger, with some delegates wiping away tears.
Several speakers also levelled aggressive and sometimes baseless attacks against the Biden administration.
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was released from prison earlier in the day after serving four months for contempt of Congress, received a huge ovation as he took the stage.
Mr Navarro, who was convicted for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the committee investigating the 6 January 2021, attack at the US Capitol by Trump supporters, said he, like Mr Trump, was a victim of Mr Biden's "department of injustice".
Mr Trump has frequently claimed, without evidence, that his four indictments since leaving office were part of a democratic conspiracy to prevent his election.
Others focused on democrat president's border policies, a favourite target for Mr Trump and his allies.
While border crossings reached record highs during Mr Biden's tenure, arrests dropped sharply in June after the president implemented a broad asylum ban.
Mr Trump has pledged to launch the largest deportation efforts of illegal immigrants in US history.
