Thousands of people lined up outside a high school in Middletown on Monday morning to hear newly elected Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance deliver a speech. Long lines of cars formed at intersections and quickly filled the school’s parking lots and the overflow spaces on the University of Miami satellite campus across the street.
The audience could only accommodate about 900 people.
“There are hundreds of people outside who couldn’t get in,” Vance said as he took the stage. “I’m so grateful to Middletown for having me.”
The event was a homecoming for Vance, who grew up in the city and graduated in 2003. His portrayal of the city is at the heart of his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, and Vance’s friends and family made up a huge portion of the audience. He joked that if you count fifth cousins, half the crowd was family.
Not surprisingly, the state Republican Party was also well-represented. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou, U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, Attorney General Dave Yost and at least a half-dozen state legislators from the area showed up to hear Vance.
Before taking the stage, Triantafilou praised Vance for his ability to connect with voters and refocus attention on campaign issues.
“Democrats have been attacking our messenger for a long time for things like the threat to democracy and issues about his personal life and personality,” he said. “We should be talking about issues that are of interest to the middle class. I think nobody can talk about trying to get into the middle class better than J.D. Vance.”
In his remarks, Vance struck a Trump-era theme, kitchen-table issues: Look inward at workers, energy and manufacturing, and build a wall, both physical and economic, to protect those inside. But he also sought to draw a pointed contrast between the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns, arguing that President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the election deceived Democratic voters in the primaries.
“You have to convince voters, you have to win their votes,” Vance argued. “You don’t decide who is president in smoke-filled rooms with billionaires and high-ranking officials.”
Dark opening act
The remarks began ominously with Sen. George Lang, a Republican from West Chester. Echoing the words of former President Donald Trump in the moments immediately following the attempted coup, Lang chanted “fight, fight, fight.”
The crowd responded with thunderous applause of approval.
Continuing, Lang called Trump Vance’s candidacy “the last chance to politically save our country.”
“I’m afraid (if) we lose, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country,” Lang said. After it sparked a flood of national news, Lang called his comments divisive and said he regretted them.
Ohio Sen. George Lang at JD Vance rally: ‘I’m afraid if we lose, we’ll have to fight a civil war to save the country.’ photo:twitter.com/7jtJz2XsAZ
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) July 22, 2024
The other opening speakers painted a much less bleak perspective, with Rep. Davidson praising Vance’s foreign policy stance and arguing it would be a boon to Trump’s candidacy.
“We don’t have to get involved in every war we’re invited to, and we certainly don’t have to fund the ones we don’t get involved in,” Davidson said.
Yost touched on the train derailment in eastern Palestine and criticized President Biden for waiting so long to visit in person. “This happened after 8 p.m.,” he joked, before praising Vance for making repeated appearances. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno urged the crowd to support campaign “because bringing all of us together is what it takes to save this country.”
In a different tone than previous GOP campaigns, Moreno encouraged voters to vote early or by mail. In the stands behind the speakers, supporters held signs saying “vote early” and “flood the vote.”
Vance’s Statements
By comparison, Vance’s remarks were hot and full of hometown details. He joked about his former math teacher and how the Secret Service took him to a local doughnut shop after his speech. Members of the crowd repeatedly interrupted him with affectionate cheers.
Angela Phillips, who runs a local metal pipe company, has seen the full scope of Vance’s political career — when he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2021, he did so at her plant. She raved about his ability to reach people from a wide range of backgrounds.
“I really support him because he understands the challenges of manufacturing and what we’re up against,” she said. “These kinds of jobs are in small towns all across America and why it’s so important to have things here that are so important to the economy and people’s futures.”
Vance delivered a version of his RNC convention speech in which he praised Trump’s protectionist opposition to trade deals dating back to the early 1990s, in contrast to President Biden’s support for trade liberalization.
“The problem is that when our leadership makes all these stupid decisions, we know exactly who is paying the consequences,” Vance argued. “It’s the people right here in this room and the communities that we live in.”
Referring to the community and his own experience, Vance pledged to support kinship care. He said there are many grandparents raising children they never expected to raise, and “I will fight for you because if it wasn’t for a grandmother like you, I wouldn’t be standing here today and running to be your next vice presidential candidate.”
But Vance also offered red meat. He complained that schools should offer “good education, not indoctrination” and argued for voter ID cards. Interestingly, Ohio already has one of the strictest photo ID laws in the country. Continuing the trade theme, Vance complained that the extensive majority of ibuprofen and antibiotics are made in China.
“I don’t know if you’ve been around for the last five years, but do you remember why we shouldn’t trust China’s approach to public health?” Vance said. “I have to be honest with you, I don’t trust a damn plastic toy that comes out of China, and I certainly don’t trust medicine.”
Vance says the barrier to this production returning to the U.S. is not labor costs, which are much lower in China, but energy costs, and “we’re sitting on Saudi Arabia when it comes to natural gas.” While the issue may be economically questionable, it’s tailored to voters in Pennsylvania — a key swing state and the country the second largest producer of natural gas.
Campaign sarcasm
In addition to arguing for a second Trump administration, Vance has also criticized the Democratic nominee. He recently argued on social media that if Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve and should resign immediately. But in Middletown, he accused Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden has endorsed for the Democratic nomination, of helping to cover up the president’s mental health.
Vice President Harris: As a former attorney general and prosecutor, I have dealt with all kinds of perpetrators. Predators who abused women, con artists who defrauded consumers, and fraudsters who broke the rules. So hear me out when I say I know Donald Trump’s type photo:twitter.com/m8qykBwZ8h
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) July 22, 2024
“Every person who saw Joe Biden knew he was not up to the task, and for three years no one said anything until he became political ballast,” Vance argued.
But despite calls to oust Biden, Vance and other GOP leaders are now lamenting the perceived injustice of disenfranchising Democratic voters in the primaries. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson went so far as to floating legal challenges to keep Biden on the candidate list.
“So my message to Democrats who are disgusted by this process, disgusted by how anti-democratic it is,” Vance told the crowd, “is you are welcome in the Republican Party, where we believe we should be persuading voters, not lying to voters.”
Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer in a statement blasted Vance, saying “Appalachian residents in Ohio and across the state are still waiting for the relief he promised the last time he was on the campaign trail.”
And while Vance addressed the hometown crowd, Vice President Harris addressed campaign staff in Wilmington, Del. As that team regroups to promote her candidacy, Harris argued that her experience as a prosecutor prepares her for the race.
“I’ve dealt with all kinds of perpetrators — predators who abuse women, scammers who defraud consumers, and fraudsters who break the rules to benefit themselves,” she said. “So hear me out when I tell you I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
