Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance has hailed the former president’s defiant response to his attempted assassination in a rousing speech to the Republican National Convention, casting his boss as a tough fighter who also cares deeply about the United States and its people.

Accepting the nomination for vice president at the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, the Ohio senator largely eschewed aggressive rhetoric in favour of an upbeat message, pointing to Trump’s reaction in the moments after he was shot during a campaign rally on Saturday as proof of his leadership and love of country.

“What did he call for us to do with our country? To fight, to fight for America. Even in his most perilous moment, we were on his mind,” Vance said.

“His instinct was for us, for our country, to call us to something higher, to something greater, to once again be citizens who ask what our country needs from us.”

Vance, who described Trump as an “idiot” and “reprehensible” in the leadup to the 2016 election, said the tycoon-turned-politician had endured “abuse, slander and persecution” to serve his country.

“Now, consider what they said: They said he was a tyrant, they said he must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said.

“But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm, literally right after an assassin nearly took his life.”

Seeking to portray a softer side to Trump, who is known for his acerbic rhetoric and vitriolic attacks against critics, Vance said that the Republican was also a devoted father and grandfather as well as a successful businessman and politician.

“He’s the man who is feared by America’s adversaries but two nights ago – and I’ll share a moment – said goodnight to his two boys, told them he loved them and made sure to give each of them a kiss on the cheek,” Vance said.

“And I will say, Don and Eric squirmed the same way my four-year-old does when his daddy tries to give him a kiss on the cheek.”

Vance, who rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, repeatedly appealed to working-class voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, recalling growing up in a “small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands and loved their God”.

“I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” he said.

The three “Rust Belt” states flipped from Trump to Biden in 2020 and are considered crucial to the outcome of the election in November.

Vance said President Joe Biden had for half a century been a champion of “every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer”, including the free trade deal, NAFTA, and the war in Iraq.

Once a harsh critic of Trump, Vance transformed into one of the former president’s staunchest defenders during his successful run for a Senate seat in Ohio in 2022.

The former US marine, who at 39 is the first millennial vice presidential candidate, is widely seen as a potential future leader of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, which has reshaped the Republican Party along populist and nationalist lines.

During his short political career, Vance has embraced much of Trump’s agenda, including calling for the deportation of undocumented migrants and expressing scepticism about military intervention and foreign alliances.

Earlier on Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr, Donald Trump’s eldest son, also invoked the attempt on his father’s life, saying his response embodied the “true spirit of America”.

“What was my father’s instinct as his life was on the line? Not to cower, not to surrender, but to show for all the world to see that the next American president has the heart of a lion,” he said.

Other speakers on the third day of the convention included Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Florida House Representative Matt Gaetz and former Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, who was released from prison hours earlier after serving a four-month sentence for refusing to cooperate with a congressional probe into the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

Invoking the familiar theme of political persecution, Navarro, without evidence, accused Biden and “his department of injustice” of putting him in prison.

“I’ve got a very simple message for you: If they can come for me – and if they can come for Donald Trump – careful, they will come for you,” Navarro said.

The evening also featured a number of speakers from outside politics, including relatives of US personnel killed during Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the parents of Omer Neutra, a US citizen who is believed to be held in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

“He turned 22 on October 14, 2023, and instead of celebrating with us and with his friends, he spent his birthday as a hostage of Hamas terrorists,” Omer’s mother, Orna Neutra, told the crowd.

“Imagine, over nine months, not knowing whether your son is alive, waking up every morning, praying that he, too, is waking up every morning, that he is strong and he is surviving.”

As he did on the first two days of the convention, Trump, who will give his keynote speech on Thursday, received rapturous applause as he entered the Fiserv Forum as a version of the song, It’s A Man’s World, played.

Trump has signalled unity will be a key theme of his address, saying his close brush with death inspired him to rewrite the speech he had originally planned.