BYRON CENTER, Mich. — When it comes to the crucial battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, long known as the Democrats’ “blue wall states,” Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance is optimistic they “will be the red wall in November.”
“We’re going to make sure Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan go red,” former President Trump’s 2024 vice presidential candidate said last week in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital on the campaign trail in southwest Michigan.
For nearly a quarter of a century, the Democrats had won the presidential elections in all three working-class states before Trump entered the White House with a narrow majority eight years ago.
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Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential candidate, will headline a Trump campaign rally at Byron Center in Michigan on August 14, 2024. (Fox News — Paul Steinhauser)
But in 2020, President Biden won back all three states by a razor-thin majority, defeating Trump.
As Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump face off in the 2024 presidential election, competition in the states remains extremely tough.
Last month’s Republican convention was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city, and Trump and Vance held their first joint post-convention rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just a few miles north of where Vance was interviewed by Fox News on Wednesday.
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Vance, a populist first-term senator and a leading Trump ally in the Senate, has visited all three “blue wall” states over the past two weeks and told Fox News he will spend a lot of time in the states over the rest of the summer and fall spreading the Republicans’ working-class message.
“We’re going to make Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan go red. People are fed up with the green energy scams that are moving our manufacturing jobs to China instead of keeping them here at home in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I think we have a great pro-industry, pro-American worker message,” he stressed.
Republican presidential nominee and former President Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance of Ohio appear on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Vance said his appeal to working-class voters was “a central message that Donald Trump and I have in this campaign, and this is a good place for people to hear it.”
Vance is from Ohio, which borders Pennsylvania and Michigan. His Midwestern and working-class roots in a region long known as the Rust Belt were likely key factors in Trump’s decision to nominate the senator as his running mate.
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Before running for Senate, Vance gained national attention after his book “Hillbilly Elegy” — which chronicles his childhood in a struggling steel mill town and his roots in Appalachian Kentucky — became a New York Times bestseller and was subsequently made into a Netflix film. The story illuminated the values of many working-class Americans who became supporters of Trump’s policies.
Fox News watched as Vance expressed his down-home Midwestern manner to the owners and family of the trucking company that hosted the rally in Michigan last week.
Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance of Ohio and his wife Usha meet with supporters before a campaign rally in Byron Center, Michigan, August 14, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
While holding a family member’s baby in his arms, the senator, who was accompanied by his wife, said he wanted a fourth child.
And later, in his speech at the rally, he emphasized the important role his grandmother, “Mamaw,” played in his life. These remarks became an important part of his campaign speech.
“I was one of the lucky ones – I managed to achieve the American dream. I was able to build a life for myself because I had a tough Mamaw,” Vance told the crowd.
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Democrats have repeatedly targeted Vance, claiming he is anything but a working-class hero, pointing to his years as a top hedge fund executive in San Francisco when he served as managing director of a venture capital firm owned by billionaire Peter Thiel.
Harris – who replaced Biden on the 2024 Democratic ballot last month and named Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, also from the Midwest, as her running mate – accuses Vance of being a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s “extreme agenda.”
“Make no mistake, JD Vance will only be loyal to Trump, not to our country,” Harris said.
Get the latest updates on the 2024 election, exclusive interviews and more in our digital election hub, Fox News.
