J.D. Vance returned to his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, for the first time since becoming vice president of the United States, with the goal of rallying Republican voters ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.
Vance delivered Friday’s speech at the iconic steel mill where his late grandfather once worked.
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He used his appearance to promote a $1 billion investment from steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs, backed by a $500 million grant from the government.
He said the funding demonstrates the party’s commitment to manufacturing and revitalizing the U.S. economy overall.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. I’m not saying it’s going to all happen overnight, but in just 18 months we’ve seen an explosive recovery in America’s heartland,” Vance said, attributing this growth to policies under President Donald Trump.
Mr. Vance’s speech came at a critical time for the Republican Party, and Mr. Trump in particular.
November’s midterm elections will determine whether Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress. Losing control of Congress could allow Democrats to block Mr. Trump’s policy priorities during the final two years of his term, and even impeach him, as Mr. Trump himself has indicated.
According to opinion polls, the economic situation continues to be the biggest issue heading into the midterm elections.
But how voters perceive parties’ ability to deal with economic strains is changing. Before President Trump’s second term began, the Pew Research Center found that voters were more likely to support Republican economic policies.
But in July, the balance of power shifted, with 37% of those surveyed supporting the Democratic approach to the economy, compared to 36% of Republicans.
A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this month also found slightly more respondents favoring Democrats over Republicans on economic policy, reversing a long-standing trend dating back to 2017.
Meanwhile, President Trump appears to publicly dismiss the cost-of-living issue as a partisan invention, calling the affordability issue a “hoax” and a “swindler” engineered by Democrats.
In his speech Friday, Mr. Vance took a different approach to trying to allay concerns about the administration’s economic response.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, but the most important things are all moving forward,” Vance said, citing efforts to make homeownership more affordable.
The speech was part of an intensified campaign under the Trump administration to boost the chances of Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections, with the president and other government officials holding rallies for them.
Ohio, part of a historic manufacturing region known as the Rust Belt, has become increasingly conservative since Trump first won the White House in 2016.
But amid growing dissatisfaction with Republican leadership, Democrats see an opportunity to take back the governor’s office and the Senate seat vacated when Vance became vice president.
The winner of the November special election will serve out the remainder of Vance’s Senate term, which was scheduled to end in January 2029.
At Friday’s Middletown rally, Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican candidate in the race, joined Vance on stage. Mr. Husted was appointed to fill Mr. Vance’s Senate seat until a special election can be held.
Mr. Vance devoted part of his speech to attacking Mr. Husted’s Democratic rival, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost the race to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago.
He accused Brown of being one of those politicians who “pretends to be a friend of the workers at this facility” and instead promoting their own priorities.
“It’s hard to understand what modern Democrats actually stand for,” Vance said, characterizing the party as straying from its ideals.
He pointed to Brown’s history of supporting the policies of former Democratic President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
“(Brown) was someone who claimed to represent this state, but he never once spoke out against Joe Biden’s border crisis or the inflation caused by Joe Biden trying to destroy American industry with underinvestment,” Vance said.
The vice president also singled out Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and repeated false claims that the Democratic Senate candidate wants “Sharia law” in the United States.
“I wish I could go back in time and tell my dad that there’s a man who claims to be on the side of working people, who not only says we should have Sharia law, but that if you criticize it, you’re a white supremacist,” Vance said of El-Sayed.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month, President Trump’s approval rating currently stands at 33%.
