(Picture credit Lewis Thune)
NORTH PLATTE — Less than three weeks after Grand Island welcomed President Trump, Vice President JD Vance made his way to North Platte Thursday morning to stump for his former Senate colleague Pete Ricketts.
While technically not a Ricketts event, Vance spent the better part of his 25-minute remarks talking about the race between Ricketts and Independent challenger Dan Osborn, one that may very well decide control of the Senate in the upcoming term. A little over 1,000 attendees filled North Platte’s D&N Event Center for a rally that kicked off just before 10 AM with the customary prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, and national anthem.
Flanked by two red Case tractors to the right and a green John Deere to the left, the early slate of speakers took the stage to rouse the crowd for the Vice President’s arrival. Nebraska GOP chairwoman Mary Jane Truemper, state senator Mike Jacobson, State Treasurer Joey Spellerberg, Attorney General Mike Hilgers, and Congressman Adrian Smith each gave short speeches lauding recent achievements, Nebraska voters, and the Vice President.
Nearly an hour of dead time passed between the end of Smith’s speech and the arrival of Governor Jim Pillen and Senator Pete Ricketts, who spoke for a combined ten minutes. Pillen briefly cycled through his standard campaign points of tax reform and protecting girls’ sports before closing with a seasonal exhortation:
“The liberals are trying to trick us, we cannot be tricked in the Halloween season. Their treats will be very sour.”
Ricketts gave a similar speech to the one he gave in Grand Island. He opened with Senate Democrats’ filibustering, castigated “Democrat” Dan Osborn for his numerous leaked comments, and closed with his call to “vote ten times.”
Then came Vance.
The Vice President entered by tossing autographed hats into the stands before taking the podium and immediately directing fire at Osborn, professing his happiness “to be among the Billy Bob’s and Mary Joe’s,” a topic he promised he would return to later on.
While the massive signs behind him read “Defend Our Future” and “Restore Common Sense,” that Osborn remark would set the tone of Vance’s speech, as it became apparent that his visit, unlike Trump’s, was solely focused on the Senate race. He only briefly mentioned Smith and Pillen, saying nothing of Lynne Walz and nothing of the other congressional races.
He also avoided mention of Iran and affordability, two high-profile issues Trump elected to wade into during his visit. Vance did, however, devote time to praising domestic industry.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of relying on everybody else to make our stuff and grow our food” he said.
Vance Touts Fertilizer Investment, Border Security
On that front, Vance announced a new $1.3 billion investment in domestic fertilizer manufacturing, an industry heavily affected by the war in Iran.
“One of the two companies receiving funding, TalusAg, is opening two new manufacturing facilities right here in Nebraska,” he said. “Pete Ricketts, and Donald Trump, and Jim Pillen, their entire vision for this country and for this state is American manufacturing supporting American agriculture.”
He specifically praised Brad Foote and his Foote Cattle Company for its 41-year operation, saying lower fertilizer costs would lower crop inputs, thereby lowering feed costs and with it the cost for Foote and other companies to deliver beef to the market.
“That’s what it means to put American farmers, American workers, and American families first,” he said.
He briefly touted the Trump Administration’s other America First priorities in light of the preceding Administration, including the elimination of waste and fraud in government programs and strict border security – he specifically mentioned no illegal crossings for 17 consecutive months.
“Sounds like common sense. It should be common sense; it’s not complicated. But unfortunately, common sense is something the far left Democrats completely lost over the last few years,” he said. “And that brings me to the guy who is, in fact, a Democrat but is running as far as he can from the Democrat Party: Dan Osborn.”
The Vice President would split the remaining time into equal parts praising Ricketts and criticizing Osborn.
“He wants to go to Washington and vote not with the people of Nebraska; he wants to go bend the knee to the Democrats – and don’t judge it by his very shiny, well-produced TV advertisements; judge it by who his friends are… he has gotten 95% of his donations from out-of-state far-left interests.”
Vance also attacked Osborn for two of the major sources of the outside funding backing him – the Soros family and Senate Democrats.
“If your campaign is funded by George Soros, if your campaign is funded by out-of-state interests, if Chuck Schumer is the biggest booster of your campaign, you are not fit to serve the people of Nebraska.”
Vance did applaud Osborn for making ‘a pretty nice lifestyle’ out of his out-of-state support, recalling reporting that Osborn had paid his family over $500,000 from his campaign. He also praised him for refusing the “Democrat Dan” nickname Ricketts has given him.
“I will say, I admire a man who recognizes that ‘Democrat’ is a dirty word.”
Osborn and Billy Bob: ‘Deeper Than Politics’
Vance stated that Osborn’s Billy Bob comments went to a deeper, darker place than standard issues of tax and regulatory policy.
“He very clearly thinks that he is better than you. All you gotta do is judge a man by what he says when he thinks the cameras are turned off. I’m sure you saw what Dan Osborn said about Nebraskans who voted for Donald Trump,” he said.
Osborn’s comments made national news after leaked audio revealed him talking angrily about “Billy Bob in f***ing Red Cloud Nebraska” and his wife “Mary Jane or Mary Jo,” who lives next to the Trump store.
“He said their lives, and I’m quoting here, ‘Probably sucked so effing bad.’ Let me tell you something – when Dan Osborn makes fun of Mary Jo and Billy Bob, he’s talking not just about you, he’s talking about people like my mamaw and papaw.”
He recounted the lives of his grandparents in poverty-stricken Appalachia.
“They got up every single morning, and they went to work. They did their best to give their children a better life than the one they had,” he said. “They’re the people who stand and put their hands over their hearts when they hear the national anthem. They’re people who are damn proud of where they came from, and they have every right to be.”
He asked what it said about Osborn that he would poke fun at such people.
“I look at those people; I look at our people – and I know Pete Ricketts does the exact same thing – and what we see is the very best of this country. We see the people who built this country.”
Vance recalled that his grandparents were Union Democrats and unapologetic patriots, saying that such people weren’t served by the Democrats in Washington, D.C. today.
“This Democratic Party, ladies and gentlemen, needs an ass-kicking.”
Vance’s conclusion was cut abruptly short when attendees in the grandstand directly behind him began calling for a medic, as a woman had fainted. Vance stepped away from the podium as emergency personnel responded, stepping back to lead the audience in the Lord’s Prayer as the woman remained unconscious.
After a few minutes, Vance made his way off the stage into the grandstands. The woman regained consciousness shortly after he reached her, drawing applause and spontaneous chants of “48.” As a stretcher was wheeled into the grandstands, Vance stepped back up to the microphone to deliver an impromptu conclusion.
“First of all, Praise be to God, she’s doing well,” he said, asking that the rally organizers and volunteers direct the crowd to exit in a way that would not obstruct the ambulance.
“She just told me that this is her first rally. Given she had a lot fun, but then not so much fun at the end of her first rally, the best way that we can repay her is one – to let her get out of here and focus on her health, and number two – by electing Pete Ricketts.”
Vance closed there and made his way off stage with promises that he “will be back soon.” Whether his return would be 48-related, he made no indication.
— Lewis Thune is a College Fix writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.