DES MOINES, Iowa — Vice President JD Vance made a marathon campaign swing to three states Tuesday to haul in cash, buzz and votes for Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections.
Vance, 41, made the packed day-trip about six months before the general election, joined by his 6-year-old son Vivek.
Leaving DC around dawn, Vance voted in the Republican primary in-person down the street from his Cincinnati home in Ohio before rousing donors at a lunch in Oklahoma City and then closing out his day at a rally for Republican candidates in Iowa.
“I’m here today to talk a little bit about the stakes in November of 2026,” Vance told about 500 people at a Des Moines manufacturing facility located in the swing district of incumbent Republican Rep. Zach Dunn, whose race could help tip the balance of control in the House.
“The fundamental question for us in this election is actually not any specific question of public policy. It’s not any particular issue. It’s fundamentally: Do you want people in Washington, DC, who fight for you, who fight for the people of this district, or who fight on corruption and fraud?” Vance said.
“Now we have in Washington, DC, a Democratic Party that is so focused on illegal immigration, that is so focused on people who don’t have the legal right to be here, that is so focused on fraud, because so many of their friends get rich from fraud, that they forgot to look after you.”
Vance touted President Trump’s protectionist trade policies intended to boost domestic manufacturers and knocking down foreign barriers to importing Iowa agricultural goods, as well as tax cuts, pro-ethanol policies and efforts to block large investors from scooping up single-family homes.
“It’s not rocket science. It’s a simple principle that if you have a government that fights for you, it can make your life easier it can make it easier for you to start a business or work at an amazing job,” he said.
Vance delivered remarks after greeting National Guard troops and meeting with two pairs of parents who lost children in armed conflicts with Iran and in Syria.
“He understands what it means when Washington overlooks a community like his community. He understands what it means to be a dad who serves and then comes home and has another mission,” Dunn said of Vance, whom he called a “wing man who is a Marine.”
“He’s a man who’s leading the charge to win this midterm, because with this midterm’s victory we get to continue delivering the greatest tax cut in the American history. We get to deliver on what Iowa has helped lead.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, one of Vance’s warm-up speakers, plugged the vice president’s role as chairman of President Trump’s anti-fraud task force, exclaiming, “the blue states won’t even give us the data — can you imagine the fraud that’s out there!”
Vance touted that work, telling his Iowa audience: “It’s kind of like fishing in a barrel with dynamite.Every every week I get a report from the task force… and I’m shocked every single day by the things that we find.”
Vance also has a leading role negotiating an end to the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, which has caused a spike in oil prices, jeopardizing the candidacies of Trump’s allies. He called the conflict “a little blip in the Middle East” and also expressing his condolences to bereaved Iowa families.
“Every time we lose somebody, every time somebody goes overseas and sacrifices their life, every time a person gives the ultimate sacrifice to the United States of America, we often read about it as a line on a newspaper or online, but there’s a father, there’s a mother, and there’s a grandma, aunts and uncles and a whole crew of people who love them,” he said.
Vance said he would be “so terrified” if his young son joined the military and that the country should “honor the sacrifice” of those who died.
The VP, the heir apparent to President Trump and his populist political movement, pitched in for Iowa candidates two years before his path to the White House is likely to be dictated by caucus-goers in the first-voting primary season state, which is likely to see competition.
“This is a contest between a party that wants to take all of your money and give it to illegal aliens and a contest between gentlemen like Zach to fight every single day for you,” Vance said.
“I have a simple question, which is: Do you want somebody who votes to give your money to illegal aliens? Do you want somebody who votes to raise your taxes? Do you want somebody who supports defrauding you and taking money away from your kids?”
Vance’s trip to his home state earlier in the day helped garner attention for Republicans locked in tight races to hold a Senate seat and the governorship.
Vance told reporters at the Maronite Catholic church serving as his polling station that he cast his ballot for Ohio Republican gubernatorial front-runner Vivek Ramaswamy.
He said he also supported the candidacy of appointed Ohio Sen. Jon Husted to fill out the remainder of his own six-year term.
“Jon’s going to do a great job. He’s a good guy, and he’s been good for Ohio,” Vance said of Husted, who faces stiff competition from the former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and erstwhile presidential candidate, is expected to face a competitive match against Amy Acton, a former Democratic state health official.
Vance’s son, who shares his name with the candidate, had onlookers gushing as he filled out a fake ballot for children, voting for the Easter Bunny after prattling to his father at their polling cubicle about how he found hamsters cute and Ferris wheels fun to ride.
The vice president’s Oklahoma City leg featured no open-press access but raked in $2 million for national Republican campaign efforts, a person familiar with the haul said.
Vance serves as finance chair of the Republican National Committee.
The lunch fundraiser was hosted by banker Mark Davenport, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and former ambassador to Canada and the UN Kelly Craft and her coal-executive husband Joe.
The barnstorming — typically reserved for closer to the general election — reflects White House plans to campaign as if Trump himself is on the ballot this fall, owing to the fact that his political agenda for his final two years in office will be dictated by the outcome.
A still-raging nationwide redistricting battle will have a significant impact on the outcome.
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