MILWAUKEE — On Day One of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump made a dramatic appearance in the convention hall after an assassination attempt Saturday. Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance was named Trump's vice-presidential running mate. Congressmwoman Mary Miller announced all Illinois Republican delegates were with Trump. And protesters marched within "sight and sound" of the Fiserv Forum as they had wanted. The buzz about Vance. You can say he has one connection to Illinois. He’s been blamed for holding up the confirmation of April Perry as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth recently accused Vance of wanting to “grind the Department of Justice to a halt” over the confirmation. About his VP slot: Neither senator commented on Vance being named Donald Trump’s running mate. Durbin will join Gov. JB Pritzker at an unrelated event today, so we’ll wait for the Illinois press corps to pounce. Republicans like Vance, pointing to his upbringing in poverty in Ohio and Kentucky and his service as a Marine and apparently not bothered that Vance was a critic of Trump. “He’s lived the American dream,” said Myles Nelson, who works for Congressman Mike Bost, and was headed with other Illinois Republicans to the Fiserv Forum when we talked. The youth factor: State Sen. Terri Bryant said it’s about time there’s some youthfulness on the ticket. “For younger individuals in rural areas, or even urban, if they’ve had a tough childhood, this guy is going to connect on every level,” she said. “He understands the Beltway,” Travis Akin, a convention delegate from downstate Illinois, told the Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner and Rick Pearson. “Redemption:” Richard Porter, the outgoing Republican national committeeman, says Vance for veep is part of Trump’s “redemption tour,” via a Q&A on The Crisis Cast. Energy is building: And Rhonda Belford, the incoming Republican national committeewoman, said Vance’s selection is an example of the GOP trying to unify the party. “Sometimes it takes something shocking to bring everybody together,” she said, referring to Trump surviving the shooting at a Pennsylvania rally. “It was an act of God, and when J.D. was nominated, it was emotional for me.” Not everyone cheered: Former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger headlined “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and called out Vance for criticizing U.S. support of Ukraine in the war against Russia. “They are celebrating that choice in Milwaukee and in Moscow,” he said. Clip, clip and clip. RELATED It’s Trump’s Party, via POLITICO’s live blog In J.D. Vance, Trump is going all in on populism — and elevating an heir apparent, via POLITICO Private meeting, billionaires and a G6 Gulfstream: The backstory on how Trump picked Vance, by POLITICO’s Alex Isenstadt Suburban native, far-right conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk speaks at the convention, by the Sun-Times’ Mitchell Armentrout
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