By Nathan Layne, Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
DALLAS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Vice President JD Vance took center stage at the Republican Dallas convention on Thursday in a speech seen as an early test of his 2028 White House prospects, offering a message of nationalistic pride that resonated with the Trumpian crowd.
As party leaders grapple with how to sustain President Donald Trump's movement amid slipping approval ratings and uncertainty over the midterms, they are also looking for any sign that Trump may anoint a successor.
With Trump constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, many Republicans view Vance as the leading contender to carry the Make America Great Again movement forward. He spoke of an "American birthright" to safety and prosperity that he said Democrats opposed.
“To the radicals who wish to abolish my family and the thousands and millions of other families all across our country, we have a simple message for them: Stay the hell away from our kids," Vance said.
"I want our children to grow up in a country that doesn't roll its eyes at people who pray, but remembers that this country itself was an answer to prayer 250 years," he said.
In response to a protester waving a Mexican flag, Vance said, "Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there," triggering a loud round of applause and chants of "USA, USA, USA."
Some in the crowd chanted "48, 48," suggesting Vance could become the country's 48th president in 2028, but Vance said Republicans first needed to concentrate on winning the November midterm elections.
Trump has yet to signal who he would support in 2028, though Republicans frequently speculate about whether Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio is best positioned to lead the party after he leaves office.
The president was scheduled to speak again to cap the made-for-television event in Dallas.
Before Vance took the stage, Republicans used the convention to portray Democrats as dangerous extremists ahead of November's midterm elections, with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas accusing them, without substantiation, of being part of a "new and dangerous red-green alliance" between communists and Islamists.
PARTY CONFRONTS FUTURE BEYOND TRUMP
The remarks reflected the central message of the two-day gathering, where speakers sought to energize Republican voters by focusing on immigration, crime and cultural issues – frequently attacking Muslim politicians – as the party confronts questions about its future beyond Trump.
Listing what he considered the ills of life under Democratic President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, Vance said, "We were tired of being called racist for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous."
There was less emphasis on issues that voters tell pollsters they are most concerned about such as the economy, especially inflation and the cost of living.
Kyndra Yamaguchi, a board director of the Tea Party faction in Montgomery County, Texas, said the convention was accomplishing its goal of energizing Republican voters.
"It stirs the base, which I think it's really needed right now, especially here in Texas," Yamaguchi said.
Even if Thursday's program was supposed to showcase Vance, the visual cues inside the 20,000-seat arena pointed overwhelmingly to Trump.
Oversized photos of Trump lined the walls, including the image of him raising his fist after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a towering floor-to-ceiling poster showing him standing before massive steel coils at a factory.
Ahead of Vance's speech, attendees packed the floor and filled the arena's middle tiers, though the upper sections remained largely empty, much as they had the night before.
The convention's focus on Trump amounts to a risky bet that he can mobilize the voters who carried him to the presidency two years ago, despite opinion polls showing his popularity is at an all-time low.
With Trump, 80, no longer atop the ticket, many Republicans view Vance, 42, as well positioned to carry forward the party's populist, anti-establishment agenda, citing his youth and appeal to activists who now form the movement's core.
VANCE GAINED PROMINENCE WITH 'HILLBILLY ELEGY'
A Marine veteran and Yale Law School graduate, Vance first gained national prominence through his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," which recounted his upbringing in a working-class community battered by industrial decline and his family's struggles with poverty and addiction.
Trent Morgan, 29, a party chair in Newton County, Texas, said he likes Vance as one of the party’s strongest communicators. But he does not want Trump or the Republican Party to choose the 2028 nominee before voters get a say.
“That’s the great thing about primaries, us as voters get to decide,” Morgan said. “It’s not good for a party to play kingmaker."
Robert Greeley, a Texas Republican attending the convention, said he wants Vance to be more willing to distance himself from people he believes are undermining the Trump administration, even if they are longtime allies. Vance has said political allies could disagree and remain friends.
“I know he’s trying to turn the temperature down,” Greeley said. “It’s way past that time.”
RUBIO AND CRUZ IN THE MIX
Beyond Vance and Rubio, other Republicans are jockeying for position, including Cruz, who told MS NOW in an interview last month that Republicans were not unified behind Vance and that the party was headed for a broader debate over its direction and priorities.
Rubio was not scheduled to speak as he was wrapping up a three-nation tour of South America.
Addressing the convention, Cruz portrayed the Democrats as too extreme, saying, without substantiation, "They hate Christians, they hate Jews, they hate the capitalism, they hate the Constitution and they hate America."
Cruz, however, was not alone, as speakers inaccurately accused Democrats of supporting sharia law – or Islamic religious code – while drawing their own legislative inspiration from Christianity.
“We will fully ban sharia law,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.
Jenin Younes, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, called the anti-Muslim and anti-communist messaging "hysteria."
"The hatred they spew is a distraction from their anti-democratic actions," Younes said.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Writing by Joseph Ax and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Howard Goller)
