VALDOSTA, Georgia — Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), former President Donald Trump’s running mate, told Breitbart News exclusively that despite Democrats’ message of “joy” around their new candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, the truth is their message is actually “dark and ominous.” Democrats, of course, used the word “joy” dozens of times at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) as they keep pushing the concept as a theme for Harris’s nascent campaign.

“About this joy thing, dude, the thing I don’t understand is they say they are joyful,” JD Vance said in an exclusive interview last week at the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. “Yet you actually watch their convention, it’s actually pretty dark and ominous. Their entire pitch is not ‘we’re going to lower your gas prices, we’re going to lower your food prices, we’re going to bring back manufacturing jobs from China.’ They can’t say that because Kamala Harris hasn’t done that. Their entire argument is that if you vote for Donald Trump and you want to change the direction of this country, you’re a bad person. I think waging war on the citizens of your own country and saying they are bad people for their electoral choices, that’s not joyful — that’s very, very dark. And unfortunately, that’s where the Democratic Party is going. So they can talk about joy all they want, but I think most Americans who watched that convention didn’t see a whole lot of joy.”

When asked to contrast the two visions for the country, the Democrat vision and the Republican vision, Vance said the GOP vision he and Trump are offering is “very simple.”

“It’s if you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to raise your family and have a good life in this country,” Vance said. “You ought to be able to work at a good job where you’re paid a fair wage. You ought to be able grow up in a community with safety and security. You ought to be able to send your kids to schools where they are not indoctrinated. And you ought to be able to build a life in a neighborhood that is not overrun with Mexican drug cartels and fentanyl trafficking.”

But, when it comes to Democrats, Vance said their vision is that anyone who votes for Trump is somehow a “bad person.”

“And I think their vision is frankly that they — I don’t know what their vision is. I don’t want to put words in their mouth,” Vance said. “But their vision appears to be that you are a good person if you vote the right way and you are a bad person if you vote the wrong way. As far as I can tell, it’s like Pete Buttigieg talked about this [at the DNC], it’s like politics is everything in your life and that you can find redemption and you can find meaning and you can find purpose. I think Republicans, our attitude towards politics is we want to have an effective government because we want to have safe streets and a strong economy, but politics is not where most people find their meaning nor should they.”

More from Vance’s latest exclusive interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming.