Vice President JD Vance slammed Democrats as an elitist group more concerned about high-earning workers than working-class voters during a hometown stop in Middletown, Ohio, on Friday.
Speaking at a steel plant where his grandfather used to work, Vance claimed the Democratic Party had strayed from the legacy of former Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.
“This is not, unfortunately, JFK or FDR’s Democrat Party,” Vance said. “Hell, it’s not even [former President] Bill Clinton’s Democrat Party. This is the party of diversity quotas rather than opportunity for all.”
“This is the party, the Democrat Party, of graduate students rather than the union and non-union workers who make this facility run,” Vance continued. “It’s sometimes actually hard to understand. Like, what do these modern Democrats actually stand for?”
The populist-leaning comments from Vance come as the midterm elections have largely focused on affordability issues due to rising grocery, housing, and gas prices that have strained the pocketbooks of American families.
At the event, Vance announced a billion-dollar investment from the steel company Cleveland-Cliffs, which he said would transform manufacturing in Ohio.
“Now that’s going to protect and create tons of new jobs,” said Vance. “We’re going to upgrade the ironmaking furnace. We’re going to implement cutting-edge new technology to optimize furnace operation and improve Middletown’s air quality.”
Vance also took specific aim at Democratic Senate candidates, including former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Abdul el Sayed of Michigan, while boosting Republican candidates running for Congress and statewide office, such as Sen. John Husted (R-OH) in the Buckeye State.
“Now, el Sayed, this guy running for Senate in Michigan, he once argued not too long ago that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in white supremacy,” said the vice president. “I’d love to go back in time and tell my papaw that there’s a man who claims to stand for working people who says not only should we have Sharia law, but if you criticize it, you’re a white supremacist. That’s not my papaw’s Democrat Party, my friends.”
Vance was referring to comments el Sayed made to the New York Times in 2009 in which he said, “Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way.”
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The vice president and Brown overlapped in the Senate before Vance ascended to the vice presidency following the 2024 presidential election.
“Now I served for two years in the Senate with Sherrod Brown; he was a friendly enough guy, but he was a man who claimed to represent this state,” said Vance. “But never once raised his voice against [former President] Joe Biden’s border crisis or against the inflation that was brought on by Joe Biden underinvesting and trying to destroy American industry.”