GOP VP candidate J.D. Vance rallies in South Philly ahead of Dem event

Just hours before the Democrats debuted their newly minted ticket on Tuesday, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance appeared at a rally in South Philadelphia to hammer presidential nominee Kamala Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, and to highlight what he and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump would do if they become the newest residents of the White House.

Inside the 2300 Arena, a 1,300-seat South Philadelphia venue best known for hosting events like this month’s “Who Wants Smoke” pro wrestling card and the male stripper revue “Magic Men of Australia,” Vance, who serves Ohio in the U.S. Senate, presided over a number of first-person accounts from people affected by the opioid crisis – including himself.

Leaning into the rally’s theme by launching broadsides against Harris, whom he continued to mislabel as the country’s “border czar” numerous times – she is actually tasked with addressing the root causes of migration from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to the U.S. – and the Biden administration over both immigration policies and its response to the opioid crisis, Vance then ceded the spotlight to two Pennsylvania residents.

“I want to invite a few people up to just give some personal testimony before I go to say what amazing personal courage it takes to be here and to be willing to offer your personal story,” he said, by way of introducing Denise Trask and Geraldine Griggs, who each talked about how the opioid crisis has impacted them, their families and their communities before he talked about how addiction affected his own mother. “I know it’s not easy, and I know this is sad, heart-wrenching stuff that the American people need to understand: What are the consequences of screwing up this election?” 

Vance then took questions from the press or, as he referred to the media in front of the receptive capacity crowd, “the fake media.” Unsurprisingly for an event meant to serve as counter-programing to the rally taking place in Philadelphia on Tuesday night to introduce the Harris-Walz ticket, many of the questions for Vance focused on that topic. In addition to mentioning that he called Walz to congratulate him on getting the nod – “I think that’s the polite thing to do,” he opined – Vance trained his fire on Walz, blaming him for, among other things, sending jobs to China, worsening the fentanyl crisis and “wanting to hand illegal aliens driver’s licenses.” He also pivoted a number of times on questions to attack what he called Harris’ “basement campaign” – despite the Democratic candidate holding numerous in-person rallies that have drawn thousands of attendees, including when he said that, “We believe the American people have the right to have their political leaders try to persuade them. That’s what’s so scandalous about Kamala Harris’s basement campaign: 16 days she has been the nominee of the Democrat Party” without sitting for an interview with a member of the media.

Vance did address Gov. Josh Shapiro’s failure to be named as Harris’s running mate, once again touching on talking points about how antisemitism rife within the progressive wing of the Democratic Party tanked any chance Shapiro had of being named to the ticket. 

“I genuinely feel bad that for days, maybe weeks, the guy actually had to run away from his Jewish heritage … whatever disagreements on policy you have about somebody, the fact that that race, the vice presidential race on the Democratic side, became so focused on his ethnicity is absolutely disgraceful.”

One attendee, Mary Alice Greto, a Chester County Republican official, showered praise on Vance after the rally. “He’s a great patriot and supportive – he’s a great family man and he was all positive. We want positive for going forward in the future, and unity for all of all Americans.”

When asked for her opinion on how the Vance vs. Walz matchup will play out, Greto took a wait-and-see attitude. “Any vice presidential thing is gonna come together after the DNC,” she said. “They’re both strong men – Heartland people – and we’ll see what they have to say.”