DV Journal

Ask Ohio Republicans about filling the U.S. Senate vacancy created by Sen. JD Vance becoming vice president, and two names come up right away: Donald Trump and Sherrod Brown.

Trump has won Ohio in three consecutive presidential races, and Gov. Mike DeWine has made it clear anyone he picks to fill the seat must have the support of MAGA Republicans to avoid a divisive GOP primary in 2026.

“It has to be someone who could win a primary. It has to be somebody who could win a general election, and then two years later, do it all again,” DeWine has said. “So, this is not for the fainthearted. This is not for someone who just wants a seat.”

And a priority among Buckeye State Republicans is that the candidate can handle heavyweight competition from the Democrats, including a possible attempt to return to Washington by recently ousted U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

After a recent visit to Mar-a-Lago with DeWine, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted is getting some attention. Supporters say he’s got a lot going for him: good looks, lots of friends, a kind smile, and a successful political career. But what he doesn’t have is the thing he probably needs most – the support of MAGA.

Husted was Ohio’s secretary of state in 2016 when Donald Trump was first running for president, and in the weeks before the election, when Trump said he was concerned it might be rigged against him, Husted said it was “irresponsible” for the Republican nominee to make such a comment. “We should not question the legitimacy of the American election system,” Husted said.

Trump apparently forgave him, as Husted was asked to warm up the crowd at a Trump rally at Dayton International Airport in September 2020. But when Husted came out wearing a mask (albeit a Trump mask), and tried to make a joke about making masks great again, he was loudly booed by the crowd, with one person yelling: “Get off the stage!”

Susan Daniels, a conservative activist in the Cleveland area, recently sent an email to a large list of friends with the subject line: “‘NO’ to Jon Husted for JD Vance’s Senate seat.”

“He’s bad news all around and is a RINO. He is the Republican version of the slimy Sherrod Brown,” she wrote.

Among the other frequently mentioned candidates — Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Rep. Mike Carey, former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken and attorney Mehek Cooke — the one who’s closest to the MAGA movement is Carey.

A former energy industry lobbyist and self-declared outsider, Carey won a multi-candidate Republican primary for the 15th Congressional District in a special election in August 2021. The district stretches from the western suburbs of Columbus to Dayton and includes several rural counties dotted with small towns.

Carey won the GOP primary with the endorsement of Donald Trump, and he has been an outspoken supporter of the president-elect.

In Congress, Carey serves on the powerful Ways and Means Committee and the House Administration Committee, which investigated the role of Mark Zuckerberg’s money (“Zuckerbucks”) in the 2020 campaign through the Center for Tech and Civic Life.

State Rep. Jeff LaRe, who represents a district just outside Columbus, ran against Carey in the 2021 special election GOP primary. Today he’s urging DeWine to pick the congressman.

“I got to know Mike as a competitor,” he told InsideSources. “He proved he has the ability to pull out a victory in a contentious primary. That’s going to be important because whoever Gov. DeWine appoints is going to have to run nonstop.”

One possible objection is DeWine’s expressed concern about taking another member from the GOP’s extremely slim majority in the House of Representatives. “It’s a reality of where we are today after the president took a few,” DeWine has said.

But a veteran Ohio GOP strategist with connections to several of the potential picks told InsideSources on background that the size of the majority has already become so narrow it’s no longer a factor. “On this question on the majority, there is no functional difference between 216, 217, and 218. Anything of real controversy, or if there is a division in the caucus, that vote would have to wait until April, anyway.”

Much more important, the strategist said, is being able to stop three-term Democrat Brown, who lost to Republican Bernie Moreno in November, from making a comeback.

“We worked so hard to finally defeat him, and we don’t want to reopen that door.”

Carey outperformed Moreno in his district by almost 18,000 votes.

Carey also has the support of the Columbus Fire Fighters Union IAFF Local 67 and the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters, the state’s largest union of firefighters.

“Mike has been fantastic to us,” said Steve Stein, the president of the union. One positive, according to Stein, is Carey’s experience in Congress. “It’s tough for Ohio to lose someone like Sen. Sherrod Brown, with his seniority in the Senate. But Mike has experience on the Hill. We’d love to see someone like him tapped for that role.”

Two mothers who questioned Sen. JD Vance at a Moms for America town hall at Union League Liberty Hall in Lafayette Hill on Tuesday evening still mourn their sons.

One young man died of a fentanyl overdose, and the other was stabbed to death by thugs in New York City. Another was fresh from the trauma of being caught in the flooding of Hurricane Helene.

Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, offered sensitive and heartfelt responses to their questions.

“My family and I were trapped [in North Carolina] for five days, living a nightmare of Hurricane Helene,” said Donica Hudson. “FEMA was nowhere to be found the first week. And has done almost nothing.” She asked what a Trump-Vance administration would do to restructure FEMA and rebuild western North Carolina.

“First of all, I’m sorry that it happened and sorry, most importantly, that your government didn’t do its job,” said Vance. “If you grew up in the Appalachian portion of the country, whether North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or anywhere else, you often feel like your government doesn’t care about you. Unfortunately, that region of the country was really neglected and left behind by the people who should have looked out for the victims. And I hate to say, but I think there would be less loss of life if the government had responded more quickly.”

Vance grew up in southwest Ohio and spent much of his time in the state’s Appalachian region, an experience he recounted in his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Vance said the new administration would fire the leadership and return FEMA to its proper role and “focus on American citizens” rather than on illegal immigrants.

“Let’s be honest, this was a Biden-Harris shortcoming. As soon as the rivers started to swell up as they did, the 82nd Airborne should have been in North Carolina…We need somebody who is in control, whose only job is to save as many lives as possible.”

Madeline Brame of New York City said her son, Hason Correa, was stabbed to death, and progressive District Attorney Alvin Bragg let two of the four killers go. She asked what the government would do to secure the rights of homicide victims.

“Here’s the big issue, the progressives, and I don’t think it’s true of most Democrats, by the way, but the leadership of the Democratic Party has got into their minds that law enforcement is inherently racist. And I think that’s a real disgrace. It’s led us to frankly dismissing a lot of good cops. And it’s meant that we don’t empower [them] to go after truly bad guys. And what I find so crazy about this is, if you look at the statistics, it is a very small number of people who commit most of the violent crime.”

They need to “empower law enforcement to go after bad guys and lock them up,” said Vance. “I just can’t believe that one-half of our political leadership thinks locking up criminals is a bad thing. Locking up violent criminals is one of the core functions of government.”

Stephanie Turner, whose 19-year-old son, Tucker, died from a fentanyl overdose after being in rehab, asked Vance about education to inform parents and kids about the dangers of this deadly drug that is now in recreational pills that kids can buy online.

“We can’t afford to sit idle while more lives are lost,” she said.

Sen. JD Vance talks with Moms for America Vice President Debbie Kraulidis (left) and President Kimberly Fletcher (right).

Vance said he would pray for her son, noting his own family members have struggled with addiction.

“We want people to have second chances,” said Vance. He noted if they get out of rehab and relapse with fentanyl, “there’s not going to be a second chance.”

“That’s why this poison is so dangerous and so deadly,” he said. “It takes away that second chance, for our families, for our moms, for our dads, for our kids. It’s got to stop. And it’s disgraceful that we have a government right now that’s facilitating it.”

Vance said a Trump administration would stop fentanyl coming into the country “in the first place.”

“It is an unspeakable human tragedy,” said Vance. “A hundred thousand people, many of whom are in the prime of their lives, have lost their lives to this. The human tragedy we’re allowing in this country. It has got to stop.”

When Moms for America President Kimberly Fletcher asked Vance about his former opposition to Trump, Vance said becoming a father changed his worldview.

“I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s more important to be honest, I think,” said Vance. “I kind of bought into some of the lies in 2016. Then when he was president…inflation was low,  the border was secure, and remember they all thought Donald Trump was going to start World War III. And yet we had more peace around the globe than we’d had in a generation.”

Vance said incentives are “mess up” in politics where people do not want to admit they’ve made a mistake, even when it’s obvious.

“The very same thing they said about Trump now, they said in 2015 and 2017,” said Vance. “And I actually think we’ll have an even bigger and better presidential term. We’ve got bigger problems to solve now than we did in 2016. So, basically, he did a hell of a job, and it’s important to say, ‘I was wrong.’”

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No Republican has carried Bucks County since 1988, but GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance was in Newtown Saturday to try and break that streak. And trends show the purple county may be in play.

Vance was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of some 1,500 at the Newtown Athletic Club, with supporters chanting “U.S.A.!” and “JD!”

Donald Trump’s running mate delivered the message they wanted to hear, making the case that Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t capable of doing the job.

“The problem with Kamala Harris is she’s got no substance,” said Vance. “The problem with Kamala Harris is she’s got no plan. The problem with Kamala Harris is she has been the vice president for 3 ½ years and has failed this country. Let’s send her back to San Francisco where she belongs and put Donald Trump in the White House.”

Vance hit the three issues Republicans believe are their best sellers with Pennsylvania swing voters: Inflation, energy and immigration.

“We’ve got natural resources in the state of Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “Great natural gas. Let’s get it out of the ground for Pennsylvania workers. When Donald Trump is president, we’re going to drill, baby, drill and bring back the great American economy.”

“Kamala Harris wants us to buy energy from every tin pot dictator from all over the world,” said Vance. “Kamala, we say, ‘no way.’ We’re going to buy it from our own people, right here in the state of Pennsylvania.”

“We’ve got inflation at 40-year highs,” added Vance. “We’ve got groceries at 25 percent higher than when Kamala Harris took office. That’s because Kamala Harris cast the tiebreaking vote to on almost $4 trillion in new spending, printing money that we don’t have to juice inflation and destroy the middle class in the state of Pennsylvania.”

He also blamed Harris, “the border czar,” for the “wide open southern border.”

“It is an invasion in this country,” he said. “When you let in 25 million people, many of whom are bringing fentanyl into this country, and they’re competing against Americans, buying homes that ought by right go to American citizens, that is why we have sky-rocketing housing costs here in Pennsylvania and across the country.” And illegal immigrants are driving down wages for American workers, he said.

Not only will the Trump-Vance administration continue to build the border wall, they’ll deport illegal immigrants. “We’re going to go to war against the Mexican drug cartels,” he said.

Vance said they would deport the criminals first. “There are 13,000 illegal immigrant murderers in the United States America right now,” he said. “They’re in this country because Kamala Harris let them into this country.”

While polls consistently show Pennsylvania is too close to call in the presidential race, the assumption is that Philadelphia’s suburbs are a deep-blue corner of the Keystone State. But Bucks County could be a key exception.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton narrowly edged out Donald Trump in Bucks County by one percent and fewer than 3,000 votes. And it’s the home of Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, whose held onto the seat even in blue-wave elections.

While it’s true that Joe Biden beat Trump solidly in 2020 with a four percent and 17,000 vote margin, since then, Biden’s been bounced from the ticket, and there are now more registered Republicans than Democrats in the county for the first time since George W. Bush was in the White House.

How important is Bucks County?

“If you win Bucks County, you keep the Southeast close, you win Pennsylvania and he’s president of the United States,” said Jim Worthington, owner of the Newtown Athletic Club where Vance spoke.

During his speech, Vance called out Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for what looked like a partisan campaign stop at a munition factory in Scranton with Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.).

“We spent $200 million on Ukraine.  You know what I wish Zelenskyy would do when he comes to America? Say thank you to the people of Pennsylvania,” said Vance. “Donald Trump is the candidate of peace.”

After the speech, DVJournal asked Vance how a second Trump administration would handle the Ukraine/Russia war and Israel’s military actions against Hamas and Hezbollah.

“I have a very detailed plan for how we’re going to bring peace and prosperity back to the world: elect Donald Trump,” said Vance. “When you have weak American leadership, and you have an American leader that nobody respects, you have wars breaking out all over the world.  If Donald Trump was president, Russia would have never invaded Ukraine. If Donald Trump was president, Hamas would have never attacked Israel.”

“We’ve got to get back to commonsense American deterrence,” said Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. “You’ve got to make the bad guys worry that if they do something screwed up, somebody is going to make them pay for it…Peace through strength.”

Vance also scoffed at Democrat claims that they’re for the middle class.

“If she stands for the middle class, why does she want to tax the middle class to give rich people money to buy electric vehicles made in China?” he asked. “Why does she want to destroy Pennsylvania energy? If you stand for the middle class, unleash Pennsylvania energy workers.”

Harris has flipped on various positions from banning fracking and private health insurance to embracing them now that she’s the presidential nominee.

“She’s not actually governing that way,” he said. He’s told Trump, “Sir, I think she’s going to show up at your next rally with a red MAGA hat.”

Vance also rejected the claim that Trump is only appealing to the GOP base. He said their campaign is reaching out to Democrats and moderates who agree with them on many issues, noting that former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and former Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are backing Trump.

“There are a lot of Democrats out there who want an economy where normal people can afford to buy food and housing, and to those Democrats, I say, ‘You are welcome on the Trump-Vance team.’”

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During an appearance at a medical products company in North Philadelphia, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance offered his own diagnosis of American politics: Democrats are gaslighting you.

“We have a country that’s being failed by its present leadership,” said Sen. Vance (R-Ohio). “Don’t let anybody gaslight you here. Kamala Harris is running around the country and saying ‘On Day One,’ she wants to bring the cost of goods and the cost of housing under control. She says ‘On Day One,’ she wants to make the cost of groceries and housing more affordable to American citizens.

“Kamala Harris, where you have you been?” Vance asked. “Day One was three and a half years ago!”

Vance’s speech came after Harris revealed her economic plan that includes giving first-time homebuyers $25,000 and imposing government price controls on groceries.

Vance was introduced by DiSorb Systems CEO Ted McLaughin, who told the enthusiastic crowd America needs experienced entrepreneurs like former President Donald Trump to run the country, noting that Democrats Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) have no business experience.

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the epitome of career politicians,” he said.

Vance came to prominence as a best-selling author who wrote about his experiences growing up in the economically-depressed environs of Appalachia, and he’s been an outspoken advocate of Trump’s “America First” policies that promote domestic economic activity, in part by imposing tariffs on imported goods.

“We’ve got to stop the Chinese and everybody else from undercutting the wages of American workers.  If you want access to American markets, you ought to deal fairly with the American people. Union and nonunion alike, we’re going to stop the Chinese from building their middle class on the back of the American middle class,” Vance said.

Vance noted Harris has also said she wants more manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

“Well, Kamala, if you really, really want to bring American manufacturing back to this country, might I suggest you vote for Donald Trump,” said Vance. “Get out of this race.”

Vance, who sat down for a series of tough interviews on the Sunday news shows, called out the Democratic ticket for refusing to take questions from the press.

“It is disgraceful that Kamala Harris pretends to run for the presidency of the United States, but she refuses to stand before the American people without a teleprompter standing between.  What are you so afraid of? The American people are good and kind.”

“If you want to be the people’s president, you ought to be willing to stand before the American people and answer a few tough questions. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, is it?”

Vance also turned his fire on Harris’s running mate, who has been besieged by video clips and press statements he’s made that were less than accurate about his service in the National Guard.

“Everything that comes out of [Tim Walz’s] mouth about his military service is 25 percent of a lie,” Vance said, adding:  “It occurred to me the closest that Tim Walz has ever come to combat, even though he said he ‘carried a weapon in war,’ is when he let rioters burn Minneapolis to the ground.

“The American people deserve to be led by someone who is willing to get out there and talk to somebody,” said Vance. “Kamala and Tim, stop hiding in the basement. Get out there and campaign.”

When a reporter asked Vance about abortion, the crowd booed.

Vance said he and Trump are “focused on making the American Dream affordable again.”

But added Trump said that Pennsylvania will have a different abortion policy than Ohio or California. “Let the states decide.”

Their Democratic opposition is talking about “taxpayer-funded abortions up until the moment of birth,” said Vance.

“We want Americans to feel like they can afford to have families again,” said Vance. “You talk to young women who have an unexpected pregnancy, a lot of them feel like they don’t have options. How are you going to feed a baby? How are you going to house a baby?”

DVJournal asked him what a Trump-Vance administration’s position on Israel and the war in Gaza would be.

“Our position is pretty simple. The best thing for Israel and the best thing for the United States is for this war to be over as quickly as possible and for Hamas to be destroyed in the process,” Vance said. “You have Kamala Harris, who said she’s really concerned about civilian casualties. Well, I’m concerned about civilian casualties, too. If you’re concerned about civilian casualties, you want the war to be over as quickly as possible, and you want to destroy Hamas’ ability to fight.

Carolyn ‘Bunny’ Welsh

“She’s pursued policies that are just the opposite,” Vance said. “Not allowing Israel to finish the job against Hamas is the worst of all [outcomes].”

Former Chester County Sheriff Carolyn ‘Bunny’ Welsh was at the Philly event, and she noted that he grew up poor and served in the Marines.

After the event, attendees told DVJournal they were impressed.

“He’s a strong partner for Trump,” said Welsh. “He’ll go through a wall for him. He’s articulate and measured.”

“I think he was great,” said Melissa Hertenberger of Langhorne after the event. “He had a clear presentation, and he knows what it is to be in business and how to get things done.”

Gary Heasley, a Chester County resident, said, “JD Vance has the ability to articulate the platform that is necessary to restore this nation. And he’s already voting to implement it [in the Senate]. He’s a great choice. You can see it when he goes on Democrat TV channels, CNN, MSNBC. He’s consistently fighting for the pro-America agenda to get these policies through, not the globalist agenda.”

Vance “can explain it, but he can also execute it,” Heasley said.

“He’s very quick on his feet. I like what he says,” added West Goshen resident Felice Fein. “He says what he means, and he means what he says. He believes it.”

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After Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance denigrated women who keep cats and don’t have children, whom he characterized as sad “cat ladies,” the media erupted. None of my colleagues, to my knowledge, bothered with the No. 1 obligation of their trade: Get the other side of the story.

So, I thought it was my duty to go forth and interview at least one cat.

I can tell you dogs are easy to interview. They will tell you anything you want to hear and are prepared to perform for the camera. Horses are a journalistic dream: They love to be on camera, especially live television, and will tell you the most extraordinary things. The rule is: If it comes from a horse’s mouth, verify.

But cats are a different story. They go for still photographs, preferably on social media. Facebook is a veritable showcase of posing felines.

But moving pictures? Not as much. Actually, interviewing cats and taking candid pictures takes fortitude. It isn’t easy to get a cat that will open up.

After several disdainful rejections (cats really know how to disdain) a Tuxedo house cat of the male persuasion, whose owner is a childless, middle-age lady, agreed to be interviewed if I met certain conditions:

—No moving pictures, just stills suitable for social media.

—No petting or touching of any kind, unless initiated by the subject.

—No attempts to bribe with food or “blandishments.”

The interview took place in a comfortable, suburban home with a cat named “Simba,” but he refused to answer to that name. He seemed to be a cat, as Rudyard Kipling wrote, who walked by himself.

The homeowner gave me permission to interview her cat in his environment: a sofa draped with a plush, anti-scratch slipcover.

ME to CAT: You don’t like the name Simba?

CAT: It is a family name, but only applies to lions in Africa. We are close but we don’t socialize, except on the internet. If you go to Africa, I could arrange for you to be eaten. (A small, red tongue circled the rim of his mouth.)

ME: So you use the internet?

CAT: Of course. Nearly all domestic cats have computer skills and can crack passwords.

ME: What is the deal with childless women?

CAT: We love them because children interrupt our lives at every level, from sleeping to surfing the net. Also, ladies are malleable.  Children manhandle you and have been known to throw cats out of windows, so they can find out how many lives we have.

ME: You are a house cat. How do you feel about that?

CAT: It is a lifestyle choice. I chose comfort over adventure. Would you turn the air-conditioning up two degrees? Do you know we were worshipped in ancient Egypt and, indeed, we are divine. Silly to try to define how many lives we have: We are eternal.

ME: What do you think of people?

CAT: They have their uses, particularly if they leave their computers on, spend oodles of money on you at PetSmart, and provide companionship on demand. Our call, not theirs.

ME: What sites do you visit on the net when you are surfing?

CAT: “Hot Cats” is my favorite, very risqué.

ME: What do you think about JD Vance?

CAT: You are so slow. Why did it take you so long to ask the only question you want answered?

ME: I was seeking context.

CAT: I could scratch you. Would that be context enough?

ME: Well, what about the Republican vice-presidential pick?

CAT: If he sets foot in Africa, I will have one of my lion cousins, Simba or Leo, drive him up a tree and reason with him. He has caused me personal grief.

ME: How come?

CAT: My companion-lady — cats don’t allow people to own them, you know — was a loyal Republican and that was fine. Cats are more conservative. Dogs, I believe, are all Democrats.

She has become a Democrat and is thinking of adopting a child. If that happens, I shall have to consider new living arrangements.

Now, change my litter, take a picture of me sitting on the piano and post it to Facebook. I haven’t been on social media since the unpleasantness with JD Vance. Such a weird man. I may have to rig a voting machine or two.

ME: Can I ask ….

CAT: We are finished. Don’t forget to take the soiled litter on the way out.

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(For an alternate point of view, see: Point: Republican Transparency Trumps Democratic Party Bosses’ Machinations)

The 2024 Democratic United States presidential and vice presidential candidates are being called the most liberal in election history by some news media outlets. Voters must choose our current Vice President Kamala Harris or former 45th President Donald Trump.

Each side has to decide to make changes for our country. Voters across America do want a change for the better. For example, having less violent crime, excessive protests, bringing down inflation, and no wars are key issues. There’s concern about our joining wars in parts of the world, such as what is sadly still occurring in the Middle East.

Fixing our country’s culture as a whole is the common goal.

There is no side that is right or wrong in this election. Both Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance political party teams have to focus on a stronger, less problematic America for our future economic government.

When our presidential candidates hold rallies and campaign events and are interviewed on a national news program, it would be nice to see less of the going back and forth, such as practically insulting each other as opponents and competitors and the “I got you moment.”

It seems that sometimes it is more for clickbait and viral content, such as when the news media bring up the presidential candidates’ past on what policies and actions they passed through. It is not helpful to keep repeating their decision-making from a previous political perspective, especially if it is not going to happen for the current governmental system administration.

Understandably, a candidate wants to be entertaining to all voters, including all age groups and not just being wholly standard but in our current political environment that we are all in. However, it is best to stay completely focused on the pressing issues that America has.

The way some media news sets the narrative is by complaining about each candidate almost as if it is on a personal agenda, not steering towards only the problems that need addressing. According to the U.S. Department of State website, our main global policy issue concerns are listed as anti-corruption and transparency, arms control and nonproliferation, climate and environment, the climate crisis, combating drugs and crime, countering terrorism, cyber issues, economic prosperity and trade policy, energy, global health, global women’s issues, human rights and democracy, refugee and humanitarian assistance, human trafficking, the ocean and polar affairs, science, technology and innovation, treaties and international agreements.

The 18 listed policy issues should be the main focus.

Things in America must get better sorted for all citizens, excluding their economic and financial status. Talking about taxes is getting repetitive. In future debates, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Tim Walz, and JD Vance hopefully can make an effort to put their personal feelings about one another aside and keep it civil for us as voters.

Whoever is elected on Tuesday, Nov. 5, as our 47th president of the United States will bring a new, fresh change for the betterment of our country because we need it progressively and aggressively.

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Hours before Vice President Kamala Harris came to town to introduce new running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) to Americans, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) held a rally with some 500 supporters at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia to make his case for the Trump-Vance ticket.

It’s part of a counterprogramming strategy by former president Donald Trump’s campaign. As Harris and Walz barnstorm swing states over the next five days, the Vance campaign blitz won’t be far behind.

While Vance didn’t address the Walz pick in his speech, he did discuss it with reporters afterward, noting Harris’ snub of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who had been widely viewed as the frontrunner for second spot. According to Vance, Harris caved to pressure from within her party not to pick a Jewish running mate.

“The biggest problem with the Tim Walz pick, it’s not Tim Walz himself — it’s Kamala Harris,” Vance said. “That when given an opportunity, she will bend the knee to the most radical elements of her party, and that’s exactly what she did here.”

Vance added that he “felt bad” that Shapiro “had to run away from his Jewish heritage because of what the Democrats are saying about him,” calling it “scandalous and disgraceful.”

Democrats dispute that claim.

Citing the wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas along with the current instability in the stock market, Vance told rally attendees Harris brought chaos wherever she went.

“Everything that Kamala Harris touches has been a disaster and we’ve got to kick her out of the United States government, not give her a promotion,” he said to cheers and applause.

Vance used most of the time to criticize the Biden-Harris administration’s policy on the southern border. The White House gave Harris the task of addressing the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico and the “northern triangle” nations of Central America, earning her the moniker “Border Czar” from the media.

Vance said Harris was an abject failure when it came to securing the border. The result, he added, was a flood of deadly fentanyl into communities across the country, including Pennsylvania.

The event featured several Pennsylvanians who said they had suffered from the Biden-Harris administration’s bad policies.

Denise Trask discussed how her 26-year-old daughter died of an accidental overdose at a Philadelphia mall after buying fentanyl-laced heroin.

“Fentanyl is killing thousands and thousands of people every day,” she said. Trask added the administration ignored the “border travesty” and caused families to lose loved ones.

One South Philadelphia woman told rally attendees that her mother has Narcan in her closet because her brother is an opioid addict.

“I feel compelled to address the opioid crisis that’s affecting our community,” Denise Briggs said. “Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies have led the city I once knew to become unrecognizable.”

Vance took time to answer questions from the press — something Harris has yet to do since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Asked about Harris choosing Walz to be her running mate, Vance quipped, “They make an interesting tag team because Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and the few that got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail.”

Vance also said he called Walz to congratulate him on the selection because he wanted to be nice. Walz didn’t answer so he left a message, Vance said.

He was noncommittal on when the pair would be on the debate stage together. Vance said it was important to make sure Democrats didn’t try to pull a fast one at their convention this month and nominate someone else.

“Of course, we want to have a robust debate again because we believe the American people have the right to have their political leaders try to persuade them,” he said.

Rally attendees liked what they heard and expressed support for Vance and GOP presidential nominee Trump.

“He’s the definition of the American Dream. If you work hard, you can do anything,” Downingtown resident Kate Collins told DVJournal.

“They bring a level of normalcy back to the country,” said Bryan Shine of Phoenixville.

Shine said the previous Trump administration was good for the economy with lower gas and grocery prices. He noted he works two jobs now to pay bills. “I can barely survive. It’s really difficult,” he said.

Others at the event pointed to the Biden administration’s foreign policy as extremely problematic.

Philadelphia lawyer J. Matthew Wolfe told DVJournal he still gets sick when thinking about the Afghanistan withdrawal that left the Taliban in charge. “My stomach still tightens up when I  think about the vision of people holding on to the airplanes,” he said. “It’s seared into my mind.”

For Vietnam-era Army veteran Frank G. Criniti, it was Biden not remembering the 18 service members who died under his watch, including the 13 in Afghanistan. “That put a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of us veterans,” he said.