DE PERE (NBC 26) — Vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance visited Amerilux International on Wednesday evening for a speech about the economy, inflation and energy.
- Roughly 250 people came to a warehouse to see the Ohio senator speak, hours after he spoke at a trucking facility in Erie, Pennsylvania
- The pre-program featured Amerliux CEO Kurt Voss, State Rep. Ty Bodden and congressional candidate Tony Wied
- Vance emphasized American-made manfucturing, and Wied echoed the Trump-Vance ticket's emphasis on tariffs
- In response to Vance's visit, the Harris-Walz campaign said in part, "Like Trump, Vance will need to answer to Wisconsin voters who are deeply concerned about why they're trying to raise costs for working families with their extreme Project 2025 agenda."
- They went on to say "Wisconsinites can't afford another Trump presidency"
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
The campaign trail continues to run through Wisconsin for both presidential candidates, and Wednesday, it was northeast Wisconsin. Vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance visited Amerilux International.
A crowd of around 250 people came to the distribution company to hear the Vance speak — and the senator spent the first 10 minutes of his speech taking aim at Vice President Kamala Harris' record.
"Kamala! Day one was 1300 days ago — what the hell have you been doing all this time?" he said.
Vance contrasted Harris' policies with those of his running mate, President Trump — saying housing and food costs are too high under Harris and President Biden, and focusing on keeping energy production in the United States.
"Donald Trump's message and solution is simple: drill, baby, drill," Vance said. "Open up America's energy markets, and get it from our own workers."
American-made manufacturing was a key topic for another speaker Wednesday — congressional candidate Tony Wied — who says he aligns with Trump and Vance on steep tariffs.
"Tariffs can be used as a tool in order to really negotiate good, fair deals and good, fair trade with other countries, in order to bring jobs back here — good, strong manufacturing jobs right back here to this country," Wied said.
NBC 26 asked Vance about his campaign's ability to win the Badger State with a third-party candidate still on the ballot.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the ballot here, the Wisconsin Election Commission says, despite him trying to get off of it here in swing states — how do you think that affects you and former President Trump's campaign?" we asked.
"I think it's ridiculous that RFK has endorsed Donald Trump, he has petitioned to be taken off the Wisconsin ballot, but a bunch of bureaucrats are going to keep his name on the ballot because they think it'll hurt Donald Trump," Vance said. "I think we're gonna win Wisconsin anyway, and we're gonna fight for every single vote. That's our plan."
Winning Wisconsin is something State Republican leader Brian Schimming says the Trump campaign is prioritizing.
"Green Bay, the upper Fox Valley, [and] northeastern Wisconsin is probably the top place in the state," Chairman Schimming said. "There's a lot of swing voters up here; it's been critical."
This comes after Senator Elizabeth Warren was in northeast Wisconsin Tuesday, former President Trump scheduled to be in La Crosse Thursday, and both President Biden and vice presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz scheduled to be in Wisconsin next week as well.
