Vance Leans Into Personal Attacks on the Campaign Trail

Tue, Nov 3, 2026 12:07 AM

Politics|Vance Leans Into Personal Attacks on the Campaign Trail

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/02/us/politics/vance-campaign-trail-personas.html

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Vice President JD Vance’s sharp-edged rhetoric shows his instincts as a politician as attention is about to shift to the 2028 presidential race.

Political observers said that the midterm campaign had showcased how Vice President JD Vance appears to tailor his political persona to different audiences.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

By Erica L. Green

Erica Green, who covers the White House, reported from Washington.

Nov. 2, 2026Updated 7:07 p.m. ET

In mid-October, Vice President JD Vance came face to face with a young woman who told him that he got her vote when she cast her first ballot as a U.S. citizen. At a town hall in Michigan, she asked why he was scapegoating immigrants for the issues he had vowed to solve as vice president.

Mr. Vance responded that his goal was not to “dehumanize” immigrants.

“To the extent that my rhetoric has been imperfect here, that’s on me,” Mr. Vance said.

But days later, when a heckler interrupted his speech with shouts of “Release the Epstein files” and “God bless our children,” Mr. Vance claimed without evidence that the man was an illegal immigrant.

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When a heckler interrupted a speech Mr. Vance was giving in October, the vice president baselessly claimed that the man was an illegal immigrant.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times

And last week, at a rally in Michigan, Mr. Vance suggested that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim American and Democrat who is running in a tight race for the Senate, would lead an uprising similar to the unrest taking place in France.

“We have to understand what happens when our nation gives in to these kinds of people, to young men with zero attachment to its land or to its history,” Mr. Vance said of Dr. El-Sayed, who was born in the United States.

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