Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, stokes up the crowd at Derry's New England Sports Center in Derry on Sunday night. Vance's visit two days before the election was aimed at giving former President Donald Trump an edge in a close race in the Granite State.
The exuberant crowd behind the podium gets into the spirit by dancing to "YMCA" by the Village People while awaiting Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Donald Trump Jr. at the New England Sports Center in Derry on Sunday night.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, stokes up the crowd at Derry's New England Sports Center in Derry on Sunday night. Vance's visit two days before the election was aimed at giving former President Donald Trump an edge in a close race in the Granite State.
By the time thousands of folks trickled in from the long lines outside Derry’s New England Sports Center, they had endured at least two hours outside on a dark, 41-degree evening, made worse by setting the clocks ahead to standard time Sunday morning.
Some people had been waiting since 2 p.m. Some didn’t get in. With every parking lot maxed out in the office park, many packed with cars carrying Massachusetts license plates, it was clear New Hampshire and the region wanted to hear from Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
Just after 7:10 p.m., things got pretty dark inside too as Vance took the stage for a 27-minute stump speech, offering red meat to supporters of former President Donald Trump, hitting all the notes the voracious crowd came for.
He said New Hampshire families can’t afford groceries, or rent, or to buy a house, and the southern border of the U.S. is wide open, bringing “a massive flood” of illegal migrant activity and fentanyl deaths.
“The record of Kamala Harris is that the world is on fire and in a state of chaos,” Vance said of the vice president and Democratic nominee for president.
He repeated an unsubstantiated line that Harris has cost the average New Hampshire family about $30,000. Vance said Harris “likes to see a lot of Americans lose their jobs.”
Vance said Harris has sent 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service agents to “wage war" on Granite State citizens, and he blamed housing costs on illegal immigrants.
“New Hampshire schools are overcrowded with children who don’t even speak English, which deprives our kids of an education,” he said. “New Hampshire hospitals overwhelmed. Emergency room wait times have skyrocketed because of people in this state who do not have the right to be here.”
The exuberant crowd behind the podium gets into the spirit by dancing to "YMCA" by the Village People while awaiting Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Donald Trump Jr. at the New England Sports Center in Derry on Sunday night.
His speech was peppered with applause lines, eliciting at least two “U-S-A!” chants along the way and full-throated boos and shouts of “Criminals!” and “Drill, baby, drill!”
The takedown of Harris did have its light moments though, especially when Vance strayed temporarily from the script and emulated his running mate’s famous “weave” with off-the-cuff anecdotes and a couple of self-deprecating moments.
He said when he got off the plane in New Hampshire he told his wife, “Honey, it is cold out here.”
“Then about five minutes after we got in the car and we’re driving here, I see like a 3-year-old in a T-shirt and shorts, and I’m like, ‘People in New Hampshire are tougher than I am,’” he said.
He then relayed a story about how when he was being brought up by his grandparents, they didn’t always have the money to turn on the heat.
“In this country, we are bountiful and prosperous enough where every American family, as long as they work hard and play by the rules, they oughta be able to turn on their heat on in the middle of the winter,” he said.
The fast-paced, high-energy speech rewarded the crowd and gave them a glimpse of the firebrand on the top of the ticket to fire up voters for Tuesday’s general election.
“I gotta be honest. A couple months ago, I wasn’t necessarily sure that the day before the last full day of the campaign we’d be in the great state of New Hampshire,” Vance said to cheers. “But I think it suggests that what we’re doing is expanding the map. We’re bringing new voters into this coalition. And for the folks in New Hampshire, who want to live free, we are the only ticket in town.”
The Trump campaign said Donald Trump Jr. was supposed to join Vance for the visit, but he was a no-show.
