Vance will campaign at the Ohio steel plant where his grandfather once worked

Vice President JD Vance smiles during a roundtable event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) By MICHELLE L. PRICE and JULIE CARR SMYTH Updated 6:01 AM MESZ, August 21, 2026 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) — Vice President JD Vance will return to his hometown Friday to campaign for Republican candidates at the same steel plant where his grandfather used to work. Vance is set to speak at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works facility, which was known as Armco Steel when his grandfather James Vance worked there for nearly 40 years. Vance has highlighted his Rust Belt rootswhile trying to boost GOP candidates ahead of the November midterm elections and to promote the Trump administration’s economic policies and efforts to try to expand U.S. manufacturing. The Middleton event comes as he’s expected to ramp up his travel schedule with more public events and fundraisers, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly and discussed it on condition of anonymity. In a radio interview Thursday on the “Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,” Vance said Friday’s stop will be “personally very meaningful” because of his family connection. He said it was “an amazing opportunity for me to go talk about, frankly, plants like this wouldn’t exist were it not for some of the Trump administration’s economic policies.” Vance, who will be joined by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, said he will also use the visit to stop by some Cincinnati chili restaurants. In his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance described the steel plant as an economic savior for his family that brought his grandparents from Kentucky’s hills into the American middle class. He described how his grandfather, known to his grandchildren as Papaw, would boast when he saw an old Ford or Chevy that its steel was made by his company. Deadline passes for Rep. Max Miller to be replaced on Ohio ballot as he faces domestic abuse claims 3 MIN READ Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio says Rep. Max Miller should leave House and end fall campaign 3 MIN READ Democrats see a chance to flip a seat as focus on abuse claims mounts against Ohio Rep. Max Miller 3 MIN READ His grandson’s election as vice president of the United States spurred pride in the Midwestern city, though Vance has faced some pushback to his portrayal of it in the book. He said kids “derisively called it ‘Middletucky’” when he was a child because it had so many transplants like his family. He said they brought problems with them from Kentucky such as drug addiction, ”Mountain Dew mouth” and problematic fathers. In the 2024 election, Trump and Vance won about 62% of the vote in the city’s precincts. His mother, Beverly Aikins, and his sister still live in Middletown. This is our AP Ground Game newsletter. You can subscribe below and we will email it you 3 times per week. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google and Terms of Service apply. Ohio has lost its political bellwether status and turned red during the Trump era, but Democrats see a chance to win both the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat from Republican hands this year as anti-Trump sentiment buoys their party. Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to replace Vance in the Senate, is trying to hold on to his seat against a challenge from former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a longtime Ohio politician with a pro-working class message who lost his reelection bid to Republican Bernie Moreno two years ago. Brown has capitalized on public opposition to data centers in the campaign and aired ads calling Husted the “face of data centers in Ohio.” The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, warned in a memo this week that backlash to the centers has left Husted vulnerable. Vivek Ramaswamy, a Vance ally, is the party’s nominee for governor in a race against Democrat Amy Acton. Democrats have not won the Ohio governor’s office in two decades. Vance, whose family still keeps a home in Cincinnati where they sometimes spend weekends, is making his first public visit since his fourth child was born in July. As part of his plans for ramping up his travel schedule, his office announced a trip Monday to Brewer, Maine, where former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is running against Democrat Matt Dunlap, the state auditor, in a competitive House district. MICHELLE L. PRICE Price covers the White House. She previously covered the 2024 presidential campaign and politics, government and other news in New York, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. She is based in Washington. twitter mailto JULIE CARR SMYTH Smyth covers government and politics from Columbus, Ohio, for The Associated Press. She was part of the AP team honored as a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news. twitter mailto