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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