JD Vance, who is Donald Trump's running-mate for the upcoming presidential election has proclaimed that he is a "Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart".

Delegates at the Republican National Convention (RNC) formally endorsed the 39-year-old broadcaster and senator after Trump gave him his personal approval on social media.

The former marine and Yale-educated venture capitalist rose to fame after releasing a best-selling memoir-turned-film called Hillbilly Elegy.

His award-winning work recollects his 'blue collar' upbringing in Ohio where his family migrated from the Appalachian region.

Donald Trump was president between 2016 and 2020Donald Trump was president between 2016 and 2020 (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)

Trump's new running mate declares he is a 'Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart'

In his book, the Trump running-mate described how his grandparents moved from Eastern Kentucky “in the hope of escaping the dreadful poverty around them”.

This region and many others in the Appalachian Mountains were heavily settled by Ulster-Scots shortly after the Ulster Plantation.

In his autobiography, he confesses: "To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart."

The terms Scots-Irish, Scotch-Irish and Ulster Scots refer to those who migrated from Scotland to Ulster before moving to North America.

JD Vance has also written about how he identifies with the millions of "working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent" who have no college degree and to whom "poverty is the family tradition".

He has also said that there are "good and bad traits" associated with the group, saying: “We do not like outsiders or people who are different from us, whether the difference lies in how they look, how they act, or, most important, how they talk".

He also believes that Scots-Irish is “one of the most distinctive subgroups in America”, with an "intense sense of loyalty" and a "fierce dedication to family and country".