JD Vance’s former roommate calls his convention speech ‘sleepy’ and ‘not very exciting’
A Georgia state senator called the speech his former roommate made to accept the Republican vice presidential nomination a little sleepy.
State Sen. Josh McLaurin, an Atlanta Democrat, has been in high demand by news organizations since U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, his classmate at Yale Law School, was selected as the running mate to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
McLaurin first made headlines two years ago when he shared text messages the state senator said Vance sent him during the 2016 presidential campaign that were disparaging to Trump, suggesting he could be “America’s Hitler.”
“JD is only animated when he’s angry,” McLaurin wrote Wednesday on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “The rest is frankly a little (sleeping emoji). This car only runs on MAGA.”
During his time at Yale Law School, McLaurin said he thought of the Ohio senator as a very thoughtful and charismatic person who had a chance to reinvent what it meant to be a Republican. However, as he and Vance grew apart, McLaurin said he noticed changes in his roommate.
During Vance’s speech on Wednesday accepting the vice presidential nomination, McLaurin sent a string of posts on X giving his two cents on his former roommate.
“‘They said he was a tyrant,’ JD says early in his speech,” McLaurin posted. “Feels like yesterday that JD was the one wondering if Trump is America’s Hitler. And Trump said he’d be a dictator ‘on day one.’ Vance and Trump are the ones saying it themselves.”
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After Trump endorsed Vance’s run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, McLaurin publicized a text message he said was sent by Vance in 2016.
“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical (expletive) like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad — and might even prove useful — or that he’s America’s Hitler,” Vance allegedly wrote. “How’s that for discouraging?”
As Trump’s popularity grew, McLaurin said Vance shifted to identify closer with Trump. That shift was on display during Vance’s speech.
Vance spent his speech familiarizing those at the convention who didn’t already know his story, as told in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” and in the Oscar-nominated film by the same name. He told stories of his mother’s struggle with drug addiction and being raised in Ohio by his grandmother, whom he called “Mamaw.”
The Mamaw stories laid the foundation for the second part of Vance’s speech, McLaurin posted on social media.
“JD now turning up the heat on his ‘economic populism’ (code for distrust of immigrants and foreign-made goods). It’s like a BOGO deal: if you tell enough warm or funny family stories, you get one free xenophobic rant,” McLaurin wrote.
Summing up the speech, McLaurin said Vance’s remarks “fell flat.”
“Well, the verdict is in,” McLaurin wrote. “He seems more comfortable sparring with cable news reporters than delivering any message of true inspiration to his base (apart from some lukewarm nationalism). The New Right: not very exciting!”
About the Author
Maya T. Prabhu covers the Georgia Senate and statewide issues as a government reporter for The AJC. Born in Queens, New York, and raised in northern Virginia, Maya attended Spelman College and then the University of Maryland for a master's degree. She writes about social issues, the criminal justice system and legislative politics.
