JD Vance urges Republicans not to abandon party over policy disagreements at midterm convention

JD Vance has urged war-weary Republicans not to abandon the party at the upcoming midterm elections "over a policy disagreement here or there".

The US vice-president has given the keynote address on the closing night of the Republicans' midterm conventions, in what will inevitably be seen as an early pitch to become Donald Trump's successor.

The speech followed further revelations about his private reservations about the war in Iran, published by The New York Times earlier in the day.

The newspaper reported Mr Vance had been privately contacting military commanders in the Middle East and elsewhere, requesting their individual assessments of the war, then sharing his concerns with Mr Trump.

Mr Vance did not explicitly mention the Iran war during his speech. But he spoke about the late activist Charlie Kirk's opposition to all war and told the crowd: "What I'm asking you to do is do what Charlie did: Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

"Don't give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy here or there."

Mr Vance, who is widely seen as the party's likely 2028 presidential nominee, gave a speech that was at times distinctly personal. He reflected on fatherhood and family, spoke about the recent birth of his fourth child and quoted scripture.

A protester waving a Mexican flag on the floor near the stage made for a brief security scare, as sections of the crowd booed while others craned to see what was causing the chaos.

"My friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there," Mr Vance said as the protester was escorted out. "I'll buy the plane ticket."

Mr Vance's most likely rival for the presidential nomination, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, did not attend the event. He was instead in Latin America for a series of diplomatic engagements.

The convention featured more than 100 speakers, many of whom hyperbolically portrayed Democrats as anti-American ideologues intent on turning the US into a communist regime.

Texas senator Ted Cruz, who has signalled he may also run for the party's 2028 presidential nomination, perhaps took the argument the furthest. He invoked the horrors of dictatorships "from the frozen gulags of the Soviet Union to Chairman Mao driving nails through the eyes of Christians".

Senator Cruz took particular aim at New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who are both Muslim, in a speech denouncing shariah law. Neither Mr Mamdani nor Mr El-Sayed advocate for shariah law-based policies.

"We are witnessing a new and dangerous red-green alliance: communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democrat Party," Senator Cruz said.

"They are united because they share the same enemies. They hate Christians, they hate Jews, they hate capitalism, they hate the constitution and they hate America."

Mr Trump gave the final speech at the event, but mainly rehashed material from the previous evening, when he spoke for almost two hours.

Outside of his own speech, there was almost no further mention of Mr Trump's cash payout pledge, made the day before.

Mr Trump had promised all American adults would be gifted $US5,000 (about $6,900) if the Republican Party retained control of Congress after the midterms — an announcement that apparently caught many in his party by surprise.

Few further details about the plan, which would cost more than $US1 trillion, have been released. It remains unclear where the money would come from or how it would be paid.

The event was the party's first national convention to be held in a midterms years.

Such conventions are usually reserved for presidential election years, providing a forum for the official nomination of the party's candidate for the presidency.

But with polls showing Republicans at risk of losing control of both houses of Congress in election in November, the party decided to hold an unusual midterms convention in a bid to maximise its chances.