(The Center Square) – Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance descended on Arizona two weeks before election day to encourage voters to vote for former President Donald Trump. He spoke at two rallies, one in Peoria and one in Tucson, emphasizing the fact that Arizona is a critical swing state.
“I think we could win Arizona by a few points or we could lose it by a very small margin,” Vance said. “We’re not going to be able to do the good job we need to be able to do for the American people unless you do your job and get out and vote.”
Vance spent his time tackling the biggest concerns for Arizonans: the economy and the border, which the Trump-Vance ticket has an edge on among likely Arizona voters.
Vance said that Trump’s plan when it comes to the economy and rising inflation is to lower the printing of money and allow “America [to] live within its means.” Additionally, he said that Trump plans to put tariffs on Chinese goods.
“They [those in opposition] ignore the fact that Donald Trump put big fat tariffs on China’s goods during his first presidency and inflation was the lowest it’s been in four months,” Vance said.
He said that the rising oil costs is the reason that some Americans are no longer able to go on vacation or have “a steak dinner on a Friday night,” and that he and Trump will work to lower oil costs and other factors that are driving up inflation.
“I know what it means when groceries go up by 25% in three and a half years,” Vance said. “That means that Americans are not getting what they need.”
Additionally, Vance said that other issues Arizonans face like housing availability and large K-12 class sizes is due to the influx of immigrants illegally crossing the Southern border. He also claimed that K-12 students are receiving a lower quality of education due to the amount of non-English speaking students, which he claims are children of illegal immigrants.
“(Harris) has used programs that were meant to grant amnesty for people who are escaping tyranny and she has used it to grant millions of people legal status,” Vance said. “When the government prints trillions of dollars, that makes the dollars we do have less worth it.”
When asked by a reporter if Trump would deport DACA recipients and child arrivals as a part of his plans for mass deportation, Vance evaded answering specifically.
“When you’ve got 25 million illegal aliens in this country, you’ve got to deport a lot of people,” Vance said. “We also have to deport people, not just the bad people, but people who violated the law who came into this country.”
He also said that Trump would use the Department of Justice against the Mexican drug cartels and provide recovery services for those suffering from opioid addiction.
Vance also discussed their plans to provide resources to pregnant women. He said that includes making fertility more affordable, offering “more options” for women who do not want to continue with their pregnancy and lower prenatal and postnatal medical costs.
“I want more American families to have babies and to have beautiful, healthy families,” Vance said. “If we don’t have families, what is this country? If you don’t have children, you don’t have the future generation.”
The Harris-Walz campaign was supported by U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly Tuesday to encourage Arizonans to vote for the Democratic ticket.
