Vance goes on the attack following the vice presidential debate

Fresh off Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) stopped in Oakland County to offer remarks on manufacturing and inflation before making another stop in West Michigan later in the evening.

Vance took the stage around 2:30 p.m. at Visioneering in Auburn Hills, with supporters including Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra, U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Twp.) and Michigan House candidate Dale Biniecki speaking ahead of Vance’s appearance. James is facing former Judge Carl Marlinga in the 10th Congressional District and Biniecki is running against state Rep. Reggie Miller (D-Van Buren Twp.) in the 31st state House District.

“It’s time to hold this administration accountable for three-and-a-half years of failed — I won’t even call it leadership. Three and a half years of failure and occupying the White House. The White House needs a new resident and they need it today,” said Hoekstra, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands under former President Donald Trump.

While the vice presidential debate saw both candidates putting on a friendly face, Vance wasted no time in going on the attack after taking the stage, blasting Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris on inflation and offshoring manufacturing, and revisiting multiple moments from Tuesday night.

“Gotta be honest, I feel a little bad for Gov. Walz, and the reason I feel bad for him is because he has to defend the indefensible, and that is the record of Kamala Harris,” Vance said.

While Harris has pledged to address the cost of living, lower energy costs and tackle global crises, Vance argued the vice president has had her entire term to act on these concerns.

He panned the Inflation Reduction Act — passed in 2022 in hopes of creating jobs and supporting government projects, manufacturing and domestic supply chains — calling it the “Inflation Explosion Act,” and blamed Harris for layoffs at a Stellantis plant in Warren as the company discontinues production of an older model of the Ram 1500 pickup truck.

A report from strategic communications group Climate Power has credited the Inflation Reduction Act with creating 334,565 jobs in the clean energy sector, and bringing in $372 billion in new investments in 47 states and Puerto Rico.

Ahead of Vance’s visit, Michigan Democrats offered similar warnings about another Trump presidency, tying the campaign to Project 2025, a list of far-right policy priorities crafted by the Conservative Heritage Foundation intended for a Republican presidential administration.

Trump has repeatedly attempted to distance himself from the effort, but a review from CNN found 140 former members of the Trump administration, including six former cabinet members, contributed to the project’s more than 900-page list of policy proposals.

“When [Trump] passed new tax loopholes that incentivized corporations to move our jobs overseas and gutted communities across our state, we lost 8,000 auto jobs in Michigan alone under Donald Trump,” Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said in a statement. “Now, he’s running on those same failed policies as if they’re something new – and he’s openly saying he would kill the progress that we’ve made in the auto sector over the last four years.”

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are running to create jobs and lower costs. It’s that simple — plain and simple — create jobs, lower costs. That’s the agenda, and Michigan families will be the first to benefit from that agenda, and so that’s why we’re going to keep fighting back against these lies and false promises that people like J.D. Vance, who is in our state today, keep spreading around this state,” Coulter said.

Vance also laid out the Trump campaign’s vision for protecting American jobs from offshoring and foreign competition.

“Here’s what you got to do to prevent those companies and those countries from undercutting the wages of American workers, You’ve got to be willing to impose tariffs, fighting back against the theft of the American middle class, penalize those companies that are shipping jobs overseas and give a tax cut to American workers,” Vance said.

Picking up from last night’s debate, Vance continued to criticize an analysis of the Trump campaign’s tax and spending proposals from the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model, which determined the plan would lead to a $5.8 billion deficit in tax revenue if implemented.

Vance also resumed his argument that undocumented immigrants are driving up the cost of housing, however one study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found immigrants boosted the U.S. economy without contributing to inflation, while another noted that immigration could put short-term pressure on housing and rent prices before new supply could be built, with housing experts pointing to a short supply as the reason for high housing costs.

While taking questions from the media, a reporter pressed Vance as to why he would not answer if Trump had lost the 2020 election during the debate, which Walz called a “damning non-answer.”

“Here’s the simple reason. The media is obsessed with talking about the election of four years ago. I’m focused on the election of 33 days from now, because I want to throw Kamala Harris out of office and get back to common sense economic policies,” Vance said.

Vance also had a scheduled event Wednesday afternoon in Marne in West Michigan. Trump is set to host a rally in Saginaw Thursday afternoon, with Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in Flint on Friday as both candidates seek to win over key battleground votes. Trump also is slated to speak at the Detroit Economic Club on Oct. 10.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.