BUTLER, Pennsylvania — Moments after stepping off the stage at the Butler Farm Show complex, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the Republican vice presidential nominee, said coming to the rally at the same spot where former President Donald Trump was shot 12 weeks ago caused a mix of emotions.
“Obviously, a little bitter, a little sweet. Bitter because Corey Comperatore’s not with us, but sweet because there’s so much energy, and people are so excited,” Vance said of the retired firefighter, father, and husband who lost his life on July 13 as the would-be Trump assassin fired into the rally crowd.
“Obviously, you’re kind of celebrating the fact the president’s still here with us. I just spoke in a lot of rallies. None of them have been quite this emotional. None I’ve seen the crowd quite so fired up,” he said of the tens of thousands who began lining up for the event before sunrise Saturday morning.
Vance was in the holding area with Trump, along with entrepreneur Elon Musk, local law enforcement, family, and campaign staff, as the former president was about to take the stage for the event.
Less than a week after the debate between him and the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Vance said he felt good about giving the public the ability to see him outside of the way he has been framed by the media and the Harris-Walz campaign.
“Well, I try to be the happy warrior when we’re out on the campaign trail and we’re doing the rallies, and obviously, we’re criticizing Kamala Harris’s policy record, but we’re also talking about all the ways in which Donald Trump did well by the American people, and we’ll do so again,” Vance said of a delivery that he said could be polite yet still draw stark contrasts.
“I’ve always felt like a bit of a happy warrior,” he said. “Obviously, the media doesn’t always cover the race honestly, as we know, but I try to go out there and have fun. I try to go out there and tell a little bit of my story.”
Vance said that, most importantly, he tries to remember the race isn’t fundamentally about himself versus Walz: “The race is about Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris, and so if I could talk a lot about her policy record and his, then that was ultimately what I thought I could most effectively accomplish.”
Vance said even the most accomplished debaters really never know how they did with their audience during a debate.
“You never know, right? Your adrenaline’s going. You’re nervous. You’re trying to just not sound like an idiot on national television,” he said, smiling.
“But the minute where I realized it had gone really well is my wife. … One of her great character traits, but also something maybe I wish I could change, is that she cannot lie to me, and when I saw her face, I knew that I had done well. Because she was so excited,” he said.
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Vance said his children did not watch the debate: “No, they were all asleep. Thank God. Bedtime’s 8:00, so a little late. I was worried my aunt would let them stay up and watch it, but she did good.”
The Middletown, Ohio, native heads next to rallies scheduled in Michigan on Tuesday, Arizona on Wednesday, North Carolina on Thursday, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Friday. On Monday, he gave full-throated support for Israel during the Philos Project’s Oct. 7 memorial rally and march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.