Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Senator JD Vance spoke to hundreds of people at the Tucson Speedway race track Wednesday afternoon. The doors opened at 9 a.m., with attendees lining up for security checks before finding their seats for the rally.
Around the time the crowd was being let in the temperature was approaching one hundred degrees and water bottles were being handed out around the venue.
The pre-show began with a pastor praying over the crowd, as the front row bowed their heads and then proceeded to cheer for the guest speakers before Vance appeared.
Before JD Vance spoke, several elected officials from Arizona took to the stage.
Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Gina Swoboda spoke about a shield given to her by a woman in a crowd that read “Armor of God.” “Put it on. Put it on every day,” Swoboda said.
Arizona State Representative Lupe Diaz said America is “battling dark spiritual forces that are seeking to destroy our way of life” in the election against Vice President Kamala Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.
Robert O’Brien, former national security advisor under the Trump administration, and Chair of the Republican National Committee Michael Whatley also spoke before Vance’s speech, pushing for early voting in Arizona.
Arizona became the first battleground state to open in-person early voting on Wednesday, Oct. 9, allowing residents to cast their ballots at polling places before Election Day on Nov. 5.
Vance arrived at the rally at 12:15 p.m., and his remarks lasted around twenty minutes. He centered around the southern border, inflation and energy resources, with heavy criticism towards Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Immigration
Vance, like Trump, pressed immigration saying how the “wide open border” has “affected Tucson maybe more than any other community in our country.”
“Tucson is facing a historic border crisis and a historic increase in crime, in fentanyl and drug trafficking and sex trafficking,” Vance said.
Vance primarily mentioned fentanyl and crime throughout in relation to what he called “illegal aliens” crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
‘‘They’re not compassionate for the American citizens who have had their communities flooded with fentanyl,” Vance said.
He addressed Latino supporters, saying Latino Americans should be “pissed off” about the current state of the border.
Vance continued that illegal immigrants are damaging housing and schools in America.
“It’s not just the crime, it’s not just the fentanyl, it’s American children who have had their schools overrun with thousands and thousands of people who don’t even speak English.”
He placed blame on the Biden-Harris administration for problems at the border and high taxes on middle-class Americans.
“Kamala Harris wants to give Social Security — which would bankrupt that program for our seniors — to illegal aliens. Kamala Harris wants to give free housing and free schooling to illegal aliens,” Vance said.
“President Trump’s message to illegal aliens who are in this country without any right to be here: Pack your bags because in four months you’re going home,” he said.
Inflation
Vance connected the Biden Administration’s border policies to the housing and inflation crises, saying that immigration and new energy conservation policies are driving these issues.
“Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote on trillions of dollars of new spending, which increased the price of food, of groceries, of housing and of everything else,” Vance said at the beginning of his speech.
“When you let in 25 million illegal aliens and you give them homes at taxpayer expense, that all by right go to American citizens, you make the American dream of homeownership unaffordable for the American people,” he said.
Energy Resources
“Drill baby drill,” was Vance’s motto when it came to energy discussions. “Unleash American energy. The biggest driver of costs in this country is the Kamala-Harris-waged war on American energy,” Vance said.
According to Vance, Harris’s efforts towards clean energy have resulted in a cost increase of forty-five percent for Arizona families. He said the plan to “unleash” American energy like coal, natural gas and nuclear, will not only keep energy more centralized but will create American jobs and help prosperity in the process.
“So rather than buy oil and natural gas from tin-pot dictators all over the world, why don’t we start buying more of it from American territory and American workers and create a lot of great American prosperity in the process?” Vance said.
Vance wrapped up his speech by encouraging the audience to vote, pushing for early mail-in voting in Arizona. “Arizona– eleven thousand votes. That was the margin last time,” Vance said detailing how important the next 27 days leading up to the election are for voting in Arizona.
For information on voting in Arizona, visit https://www.arizona.vote/.
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