J.D. Vance has become a workhorse on the campaign trail.
He discovered some surprising things about the American people during his travels.
And J.D. Vance got one scary message from swing state voters that shocked Democrats.
J.D. Vance’s unique biography helps him strike a chord with voters
U.S. Senator J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) initial rise to prominence came from his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, about his childhood struggles growing up in Ohio and Kentucky.
His background, being raised in the steel town of Middletown, Ohio, in a family that struggled with addiction, gives him a perspective that most politicians don’t have.
Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are the three most important swing states in this election.
These Rust Belt states are filled with towns like Middletown that have been left behind in the 21st century.
Vance has been hitting the campaign trail in those states as the final sprint to Election Day begins.
He held a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he made a connection to voters talking about his mother’s struggles with drug addiction growing up.
Stay-at-home mom Mary Doyle could sympathize with Vance’s story.
“I have two brothers who died of opioids,” Doyle said. “I know people in our neighborhood who have kids, they’re dropping like flies.”
Dan Doyle, her husband, was one of the speakers who warmed up for Vance.
“We saw Mary’s brother two years ago in a body bag,” Dan said. “Opioids. Fentanyl poisoning. And nobody talks about it.”
Opioid addiction has devastated the country, but it’s a public health crisis that’s overlooked by most of the politicians in Washington, D.C.
The forgotten crisis hollowing out America
Fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-49.
And the problem has gotten worse during the Biden-Harris border crisis, with Mexican drug cartels flooding the county with the deadly drug through the wide-open southern border.
“Nobody cares,” Mary said. “Here you see JD Vance talking about it. Trump talks about it. You don’t see the Dems talking about it.”
She was excited to vote for former President Donald Trump for a third time and glad he tapped Vance as his running mate.
Vance had an emotional tribute to his mom at the Republican National Convention, who he noted was ten years sober.
Chris Knight brought a copy of Hillbilly Elegy to Vance’s Erie rally with her.
She told the New York Post that her daughter battled heroin addiction and “now helps other people so they don’t go down this path.”
“I can relate to him so well. I relate to him totally,” Knight said.
Vance said that Erie – a city of about 95,000 on the shores of Lake Erie – reminded him of his hometown.
He noted that that city had a “proud manufacturing tradition” that’s “been left behind.”
“The number one issue when I go to places like Erie, Pennsylvania is inflation,” Vance said. “The number two issue is why did Kamala Harris open up the southern border and let these cartels bring in the poison that’s killing our families?”
Cities like Erie, across the country, are being hollowed out from the failed Biden-Harris agenda.
