TAMPA, Fla. — Ann Romney kicked off her prime-time address wearing a bright red dress — Ronald Reagan’s favorite color and one occasionally worn by his wife, Nancy. She immediately addressed one of the main criticisms that Democrats have leveled against her husband, the Republican presidential nominee: that he’s an out-of-touch rich guy who doesn’t understand the struggles of the middle class and the poor.

Like many other convention speakers who referenced the convention’s “We Built It” theme, Ann Romney noted that neither she, nor her husband, nor their parents started out successful. Of her marriage, she said, “We got married and moved into a basement apartment. We walked to class together, shared the housekeeping, and ate a lot of pasta and tuna fish. Our desk was a door propped up on sawhorses. Our dining room table was a fold-down ironing board in the kitchen. Those were very special days.”