MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Vice President JD Vance campaigned for Republican candidates while speaking about the Trump administration's "America First" economic agenda Friday at the steel plant where his grandfather used to work.
Vance highlighted his Rust Belt roots at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works facility, portraying the Democratic Party his Papaw, James Vance, once supported as unrecognizable today.
WATCH: Here's what JD Vance spoke about in Middletown
This visit was the first time Vance has returned to Middletown since he campaigned there shortly after he was chosen as President Donald Trump's running mate during the 2024 election.
Vance took the stage at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works facility, which was known as Armco Steel when his grandfather worked there for nearly 40 years.
“Papaw was a welder in this place for 40 years, and today his grandson stands here as the vice president of these United States. It’s an amazing thing," Vance said.
WATCH: Vance's speech in full below
The Middletown event comes as Vance is expected to ramp up his travel schedule with more public events and fundraisers, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly and discussed it on the condition of anonymity.
Vance says Trump is trying to reverse decades of 'American decline'
While campaigning this year, Vance has acknowledged Americans' cost-of-living concerns. While trying to assure voters that the administration is working to reverse high prices, he did not offer specifics on those efforts.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do” and “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy or it’s all going to happen overnight," Vance said. But he said Trump was trying to reverse “40 years of American decline." He pointed to Trump's immigration and trade policies, including his tariffs, as trying to protect jobs like those at the steel plant.
Trump's tariff policies, though, have contributed to the higher costs Americans are facing as the taxes on imports have raised the price of imported products as well as those made domestically, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
With an eye toward Ohio's competitive elections, Vance focused on portraying Democrats today as unrecognizable to the party his grandfather supported for its union associations, calling it the “party of graduate students.”
Vance said his grandfather also thought "way too many politicians were just plain old corrupt."
“He hated the people who forgot about this town when they should have been fighting for this town,” Vance said.
Vance blamed politicians of both major political parties, saying that for 40 years they espoused policies of free trade and open immigration that led to factory jobs being shipped overseas and an eventual scourge of opioids left behind, which he blamed on “a lot of cartels” and “the fentanyl trade,” which he said came along with “some innocent people” across the border.
Vance has deep ties to the town and the steel plant
In his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance described the steel plant as an economic savior for his family that brought his grandparents from Kentucky's hills into the American middle class. He described how his grandfather would boast when he saw an old Ford or Chevy that its steel was made by his company.
His grandson's election as vice president of the United States spurred pride in the Midwestern city, though Vance has faced some pushback to his portrayal of it in the book. He said kids “derisively called it ‘Middletucky’” when he was a child because it had so many transplants like his family. He said they brought problems with them from Kentucky such as drug addiction, ”Mountain Dew mouth” and problematic fathers.
In the 2024 election, Trump and Vance won about 62% of the vote in the city's precincts. His mother, Beverly Aikins, and his sister still live in Middletown.
Vance, who was joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, said in a radio interview on the “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,” ahead of the trip, that he would also use the visit to stop by some Cincinnati chili restaurants. Before he arrived at the steel plant, he first stopped by a local pastry shop to buy doughnuts and remind workers there of the “no tax on tips” provision in the tax and spending law Trump signed last year, according to a video posted online by an aide.
Ohio has lost its political bellwether status and turned red during the Trump era, but Democrats see a chance to win both the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat from Republican hands this year as anti-Trump sentiment buoys their party.
Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to replace Vance in the Senate, is trying to hold on to his seat against a challenge from former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a longtime Ohio politician with a pro-working class message who lost his reelection bid to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago.
Brown has capitalized on public opposition to artificial intelligence data centers in the campaign and aired ads calling Husted the “face of data centers in Ohio.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, warned in a memo this week that backlash to the centers has left Husted vulnerable.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a Vance ally, is the party’s nominee for governor in a race against Democrat Amy Acton. Democrats have not won the Ohio governor’s office in two decades.
Vance was expected to make a stop at his Cincinnati-area home. The City of Cincinnati announced roads around Vance's home will be closed from Thursday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.
These roads and sidewalks along them in East Walnut Hills will be closed for the weekend:
- William Howard Taft Road between Torrence Parkway and East McMillan Street
- Collins Avenue between Riverside Drive and Taft
- Gladstone Avenue
- Taft Road Lane
- Heatherhill Lane
The city recommends drivers and residents use Torrence Parkway, Madison Road and Woodburn Avenue as a detour.
His visit comes as Cleveland-Cliffs pursues a major modernization project at its Middletown Works facility. The proposal includes construction of a cogeneration plant and upgrades to a blast furnace and related material-handling operations.
Cleveland-Cliffs announced Friday morning that the U.S. Department of Energy "has established a framework for Cliffs to finalize negotiations and implementation plans" for that project. The company says construction of the project will employ more than 1,500 workers, including local union building trades.
"Cleveland-Cliffs is making a decisive investment in the future of American steelmaking and manufacturing, going above and beyond a standard blast furnace reline, to include the most advanced technology available," said Lourenco Goncalves, the chairman and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, in a press release.
The project is a $1 billion total investment in the Middletown Works site, according to Cleveland-Cliffs; the company has received a $500 million grant from the DOE as well.
"It has been 125 years since ARMCO opened the Middletown Steel Plant," wrote Middletown City Manager Ashley Combs in an emailed statement. "Today, under the direction of Cleveland-Cliffs, steel production remains a cornerstone of our local economy and an important part of our community's growth. This historic investment in their Middletown facility further solidifies Cleveland-Cliffs as strong and steady presence in our community."
"If you take a look at the people who attended today's announcement, you can begin to understand just how essential the steel industry and Cleveland-Cliffs are to Middletown and the entire region," Middletown Mayor Elizabeth Slamka wrote in an emailed statement. "Their project represents a $1 billion investment in Middletown Works which includes a new, state-of-the-art cogeneration plant in Middletown, and this demonstrates their long-term commitment and investment to our city and its future."
Vance, whose family still keeps a home in Cincinnati where they sometimes spend weekends, is making his first public visit since his fourth child was born in July.
As part of his plans for ramping up his travel schedule, his office announced a trip Monday to Brewer, Maine, where former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is running against Democrat Matt Dunlap, the state auditor, in a competitive House district.
