“Our Democratic friends talk a lot about carbon emissions,” Vance said, “this idea that carbon emissions drives all the climate change. … Well, if you believe that, what would you want to do? The answer is that you’d want to restore as much American manufacturing as possible, and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.”

No Republican has ever given a response to the climate change question like that. It was a far cry from the laundry list of Republican politicians who have taken the bait from the legacy media and decried the issue as a hoax.

From there, Vance showed exactly why former President Donald Trump chose him to be his vice presidential nominee: He was articulate and even-keeled and showed a keen ability to explain the nuances of the Trump campaign’s policy platform in a manner easily accessible to voters while brilliantly dismantling the indefensible record of Vice President Kamala Harris, leaving a stumbling Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) thoroughly defeated.

With his all-star performance, Vance has staked his claim as the future of the Republican Party, regardless of whether or not the Trump ticket is victorious in November. He has effectively and brilliantly articulated the conservative populism that Trump has promised to deliver in a way that no one before him has.

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While the debate on Tuesday was about each candidate’s efforts to support their respective running mate at the top of the ticket, Vance has made a statement that, four years from now, he should continue the Trump legacy and carry the party’s standard into the future.

If Vance is the future of the Republican Party, then it is a very bright future indeed.