#RNC 2020: Ex-Democratic mayor says mining town ‘lost hope’ until Trump

Bob Vlaisavljevich, the formerly Democratic mayor of a small Minnesota mining town, touted President Trump as a defender of his constituents and Americans like them in remarks Tuesday night at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

“My father and grandfather earned their livings mining the raw materials that made the steel that built America,” he said. “This election is a make-or-break for workers who are carrying on the legacy of men like them.”

Vlaisavljevich said that Democrats who historically fought for working men and women can no longer be relied upon.

“Since the Iron Range economy is vulnerable to economic trends and to foreign trade, we always needed a strong voice in Washington,” he said. “We looked to Democrats to fill that void for many years because we actually thought they cared about our welfare.

“Not anymore. … This is hard for me to say because I am a lifelong Democrat.

Vlaisavljevich in 2018 told The New York Times that he had changed his registration to Republican.

Vlaisavljevich watched the population of Eveleth, Minn., which he now serves as mayor, dwindle over the years.

“We lost thousands of jobs,” he said. “We lost a generation of young people who had to leave the Iron Range to find a livelihood.

“Worst of all, we lost hope.”

That all changed, Vlaisavljevich said, with the election of Trump.

“A straight-talking New Yorker burst onto the scene, promising to stand up to China and the rest of the world on behalf of the American worker,” he said. “Four years later, the Iron Range is roaring back to life.”

Trump accomplished that through tariffs on foreign steel, helping to prop up an American industry flagging since the 1970s.

“But the fight is not over,” said Vlaisavljevich. Democratic nominee “Joe Biden has allowed radicals like AOC [New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] to craft his environmental policies. Their so-called Green New Deal is a job-killing disgrace dreamt up by people who don’t live in the real world.

“Biden is too weak, too scared and too sleepy to stand up to the radical left. … Donald Trump won’t back down to anybody.”

The Gopher State went to Hillary Clinton in 2016, but by a margin of less than two percentage points — and Trump captured every bordering state, including Wisconsin in a scales-tipping upset.