Doors open for the event at 10:30 a.m., according to the Trump campaign.
Vance was raised by his grandparents in Middletown, while his mother, whom he introduced during his speech Wednesday, battled an addiction he said she put behind her 10 years ago. He spent a significant amount of time traveling to Kentucky with his grandparents to visit family and said he hoped to be buried in a small mountain cemetery there.
He vowed in the speech to be “a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”
Lori Meibers, whose sister is Vance’s mother, was backstage Wednesday night when Vance was the keynote speaker at the GOP Convention in Milwaukee.
After speaking, Vance pulled his family onto the stage.
“It feels like we’re literally in a dream,” Meibers told this newspaper Thursday afternoon during a phone interview. “This is actually happening. We always knew he was smart and destined for greatness.”
Meibers said since she was backstage, she only heard parts of Vance’s speech that touched on being raised in a broken Middletown home.
“To be honest, that was pure JD,” Meibers said when asked for her reaction to his speech. “He speaks from the heart. He’s a normal, everyday guy. He’s very relatable.”
Vance, 39, a 2003 Middletown High School graduate, has talked about his mother’s drug addictions, numerous failed marriages and how his grandmother, whom he calls “mamaw,” was his guiding force.
“His whole life prepared him for this role,” his aunt said. “JD is a survivor.”
Vance told her mother that in January, on the anniversary of her sobriety, he’s throwing her a party in the White House if he’s elected.
Meibers called her sister’s battle with drug addiction “the hardest years” of her life.
“Addiction robs the whole family of something they can never replace,” she said. “I was so proud of my sister.”
Aikins has regained her nursing license and works at an addiction center, her sister said.
Rick McCrabb and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
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