Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) made his first visit to Nevada on Tuesday since becoming the Republican nominee for vice president, attacking Vice President Kamala Harris’ immigration record and arguing the new Democratic frontrunner was responsible for rising costs.

Vance’s two-city swing started off with a speech in Henderson and included a speech in Reno later in the day. Speaking to a crowd of hundreds at Liberty High School in Henderson, he accused Harris of being culpable for record-setting border crossings, a “cover-up” of President Joe Biden’s health and an economy that has suffered from high inflation (which has since eased). He also said electing his running mate — former President Donald Trump — is the only way America will regain its strength domestically and internationally.

With a focus on Harris’ role in immigration policy and her record as a Democratic senator (she was once rated the most liberal member of the Senate), Vance’s 25-minute speech offered a preview into how Republicans plan to reshift their campaign tactics after Biden stepped aside and Democrats coalesced around Harris.

“Kamala Harris owns every failure of the Biden administration over the last four years,” Vance said.

In Reno, Vance reiterated much of his earlier message to more than a thousand people who assembled at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center: “If we don't stop Kamala Harris, we are going to lose the American dream.” 

He emphasized that the United States needs a president who will tell energy workers to “drill baby, drill,” welcome fracking and “launch the largest deportation program in American history.”

Since Trump tapped Vance as his running mate two weeks ago, polls have shown the first-term senator to have historically low approval ratings for a running mate at this point in the election cycle. 

Vance, who rose to fame after the publication of his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, has been hammered by Democrats about his resurfaced past remarks, including referring to Harris as a “childless cat lady [who] wants to make the rest of the country miserable too,” and 2022 comments supporting a national abortion ban. 

His appearance in Nevada comes as experts anticipate a close election in Nevada, after Trump routinely led Biden in polls of the Silver State throughout the year. National surveys show Harris making gains among younger voters and minority groups, and a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll released Tuesday afternoon showed Harris leading Trump by 2 percent in Nevada.

Nevada has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 2008, but the margin of victory in the state has continued to shrink. Though the state has a Democratically dominated state Legislature and congressional delegation, Gov. Joe Lombardo and a handful of other Republicans won statewide races in 2022, growing Republican hopes of flipping the state in 2024.

Vance was briefly joined by Sam Brown, the Republican candidate seeking to unseat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV). Brown said that Vance and Trump show “what leadership looks like.”

Vance’s speech

Like he has at other campaign stops, Vance pummeled Harris for the Biden administration’s immigration policies. 

He referred to Harris as the administration’s “border czar,” a title that emerged regarding confusion on her role after being tasked by Biden to investigate the root causes of a surge of migrant crossings at the border, and highlighted comments she made in 2019 supporting decriminalizing illegal immigration.

“As America's border czar, Kamala Harris unleashed the worst border crisis in American history,” Vance said.

Data shows a significant drop in recent border crossings, with June marking the fewest monthly illegal crossings since Biden took office in January 2021. Illegal border crossings soared to record-breaking highs from 2021 to 2023, but have since decreased after a sweeping executive order from Biden that allows border officials to remove migrants without processing their asylum requests once a certain threshold is met.

“If you are in this country illegally, start packing your bags right now, because Donald Trump is coming back,” Vance said in his Reno speech.

Vance also hit Harris on the economy, saying she supports closing American factories and is responsible for the country’s “affordability crisis.”

“Higher groceries, higher energy prices, higher housing prices — it is destroying the American dream, and it is Kamala Harris' fault,” Vance said.

He accused Harris of wanting to roll back gun rights (The New York Times also reported this week that she supports an assault weapons ban but has walked back forcing owners to sell them to the federal government) and said Trump is the only candidate who supports police officers.

Vance also leaned into his personal story and talked about being raised by his grandmother after his mother struggled with addiction and dad left when he was young.

“That was the woman who gave me all the opportunities that I've had, and I'm so grateful for all the strong women out there, especially the strong grandmas and the strong moms,” he said.

He also accused Harris and the media of covering up Biden’s fitness to be president. He called the push by top Democrats to force Biden, 81, off the ticket as a “coup” and suggested that Harris had been leading the country the past four years.

“He didn't know what was going on, so somebody was calling the shots, and we know it was Kamala Harris,” Vance said. “Do you want a president who is disloyal to this country or do you want one who was willing to take a bullet for it?”

What do voters think about Vance? 

While most voters The Nevada Independent spoke to at the Henderson event said that they hadn’t previously heard of Vance, they’ve come to support him as someone who espouses working class and family values. More than any specific policies, attendees pointed out his blue-collar upbringing in Appalachia as what made him a good pick for vice president. 

Jason D’Souza, a 47-year-old who moved to Las Vegas from California after he had lost custody of his infant son, feels that Vance, who grew up with an absent father, will understand his struggle and those of other estranged parents.

“That’s all I want is to be a dad. Then I see J.D. Vance and the same thing happened with his dad. He couldn’t be in his dad’s life. They said ‘oh child support,’” D’Souza said. 

D’Souza blames California Democrats such as Harris for waning “parental rights.” That, on top of the rising cost of living in California, pushed him to move to Vegas. 

Similar to D’Souza, Caylin Tyrell, 29, recently moved from her home state of Hawaii to Nevada last year because of rising costs. Tyrell had previously supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, but she says she increasingly found Clinton’s and Democrats’ political messaging hollow as she grew older.

The media, Tyrell and her mother said, have unfairly censored Trump through sound bites and outsized focus on his former celebrity status. Recent criticism of Vance’s comments on women were likely just another attempt by the corporate media to sow distrust they contend. 

“People take clips of Trump and chop it up and make him seem like a bad person,” Tyrell said.

For many attendees, economic woes were also entangled with concerns about border control.

Stan, a 45-year-old who declined to give his last name, splits his time between Nevada and Arizona, where immigration is a hot button topic. He said that although immigration is a “wonderful thing,” it has further strained resources and raised prices.

“I’m really for the America first agenda right now,” he said. “Not until we know what we’re doing here should we open up.” 

All the attendees that The Nevada Independent spoke to said they held favorable views of Vance. Harris' rising popularity won’t last long, many predicted. 

Reporter Tabitha Mueller contributed to this story.

This story was updated on 7/30/2024 at 6:23 p.m. to include details from a rally in Reno.