RALEIGH — Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, delivered remarks at a campaign stop at Raleigh’s Union Station on Wednesday.
NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons opened the event by urging everyone to vote in November. When Vance took the stage, he gave shout-outs to Republican congressional candidates like House Speaker Tim Moore, who is running for the 10th District seat, Addison McDowell (6th), Pat Harrigan (10th) and Brad Knott (13th), as well as Hal Weatherman, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
Vance opened by hitting Vice President Kamala Harris for her lack of media interviews and suggested she was hiding from the press.
“We all know that what she’s hiding from is that she is a dangerous, San Francisco liberal now pretending that she is a moderate,” said Vance. “But the record, ladies and gentlemen, speaks for itself, doesn’t it? We know exactly who Kamala Harris is because she’s governed that way for the last 3½ years.”
Vance also took aim at Harris telling stories about herself, including growing up in a middle-class family and working at McDonalds, rather than answering direct questions.
“We do not care, Kamala Harris, about how much you want to talk about yourself,” said Vance. “We want to understand how you’re going to fix the problems for the American people, the problems caused by your policies.”
Later in his remarks, he asked, “How is she going to sit in a room with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping? How is she going to sit in a room with the adversaries of America if she won’t even sit down for a friendly media interview?”
He also criticized Harris for “increased regulations on American energy” and “refusing to do anything that would actually allow our great American energy producers to do their job, to lower prices and to make our country less safe.
“As President Trump says, all we need to do is ‘drill, baby drill,’ and that will do more for American prosperity than anything,” Vance added before describing how energy and fuel costs drive higher prices on consumer goods and groceries.
The Ohio senator then turned his focus to the economy, telling the crowd inflation was up 22% in the Tarheel State under Harris.
“That means the average North Carolina family is spending about $12,000 more per year,” said Vance. “$12,000 more per year, about a thousand dollars more per month, just to afford now what they could have afforded three years ago now. How does that make an ounce of sense?”
Vance added that gas prices are “30% higher today than when Kamala Harris took office” and home prices were completely unaffordable to young Americans.
“I believe that we are a rich and prosperous enough nation that no American family should have to debate whether they can afford to turn on the heating in the middle of a cold winter night,” said Vance after recalling how “times were really tight” and his family had to make that choice.
Vance knocked Harris for her position changes and said she is “practically just running on a Trump agenda right now.”
Crime and illegal immigration were also woven into Vance’s speech to the hundreds of supporters who packed into the venue.
“There are a lot of Democrats celebrating right now that they lowered interest rates by half a percent, but interest rates have gone up about 6% thanks to Kamala Harris’ policies,” said Vance. “That’s No. 1 why housing prices are so high. The second reason that housing is so high is because we let in 25 million illegal aliens to compete against Americans for scarce housing.”
He mentioned cities where large numbers of migrants have settled, outpacing town resources and housing, and said, “They’ll say you are a racist if you dare complain about it, and I think it’s the most disgraceful.
“Our message to illegal aliens who come to this country who have driven up the cost of housing, who have made it more expensive for Americans to afford a good life, to the drug cartels who have brought in pounds and pounds, tons and tons of fentanyl into this country — our message is simple: In six months pack your bags because you’re going home.”
Unlike typical campaign rallies, following the conclusion of his speech, Vance took live questions from the media.
North State Journal asked Vance to expand on his energy independence remarks and what the Trump plan meant for North Carolinians.
“There’s a few different things that we have to do,” Vance replied. “No. 1, the Harris campaign, the Harris vice presidency, has imposed a number of power plant regulations that are absolutely nonsensical and raise the cost of energy for North Carolina consumers.
“The second thing is, we’ve got a lot of natural gas capacity all across our country. We don’t have the pipelines to get this stuff where it needs to go. And Kamala Harris has got to stop shutting down pipelines. We need to be opening up pipelines, lowering cost for American consumers and everybody else.”
Vance also linked energy production and costs to food prices, but he also noted the increased costs borne by farmers with fertilizer often being derived from natural gas. Vance said it is leading to a “very serious crisis” for the nation with it becoming a net importer of food and saying other countries controlling our food supply is a “national security issue.”
“The first full year that we became a country where we eat more than we grow — 2023, under the policies (of) Kamala Harris,” said Vance. “So it’s bad for our farmers. It’s bad for anybody who goes to the grocery store, but it is a massive national security issue.”
The Republican vice presidential candidate’s visit to Raleigh is the latest stop for both campaigns in North Carolina, a swing state sought after by both Trump and Harris.
The latest Gallup Poll shows Trump ahead of Harris in favorability ratings, 46% to 44%, respectively. That’s a three-point drop for Harris and four-point gain for Trump over their August favorability ratings. The candidates are nearly tied in unfavorable rating in the Gallup Sept. 3-15 poll: 53% for Trump and 54% for Harris.
