Speech: JD Vance Addresses a Political Rally in Lakeland, Florida - October 1, 2026

How we doing, Polk County? [Audience member calls out "Super fine"]

Super fine. Ma'am, thank you and God bless you. Look, it is amazing to be here in the great town of Lakeland. We've got some amazing Floridians from the free state of Florida with us today. First, let's give it up for your state representative, the amazing Jennifer Canady. Jennifer. Jennifer is also the mother-in-law of one of my staff members, so I had to give Jennifer a good shout-out. [Laughter] We also got to welcome Ag Commissioner Wilton Simpson.

Wilton, thank you so much. Florida GOP chair Evan Power, give it up for Evan. Thank you. CFO Blaise Ingoglia. Blaise, I got it? Okay. That's good. I pronounced his name, name right, or the fake news would have given me a lot of crap for it. [Laughter] And your amazing governor -- lieutenant governor, I should say -- Jay Collins.

Governor, thank you. And I wanna give a special shout-out to Jay because as Bry- -- Byron would be the first to tell you, Jay ran an amazing race and has been on the team fighting for Republicans ever since. So Jay, thank you, man. And if anybody was unsure, I would say by the turnout today, it seems very obvious that Florida is MAGA country, and it's great to be in Central Florida.

Now, we've got, it feels like half of the congressional delegation here, but we've got some amazing up-and-coming patriots, and I wanna give them sh- -- a shout-out as well. First of all, Mike Beltran, give it up for Mike. We've got Sydney Gruters here with us today, Sydney. Ryan Elijah, give it up for Ryan Elijah.

And the great Jim Schwartzel. Jim, thank you. And they're going to be joining some amazing leaders already doing great work in Congress, so let's hear it for Gus Bilirakis. Laurel Lee. The absolute superstar, Anna Paulina Luna. Anna, thank you. I think Anna got more applause than I did. I don't, I don't like that very much. [Laughter] Makes me jealous.

And of course, the fantastic Scott Franklin. Scott, thank you so much, man. Okay. I'm almost done, but last but certainly not least with our introductions. You know that we have incredible people running statewide to keep the great state of Florida free and safe and prosperous. So please join me in welcoming, but more important, please join me in supporting the great Senator Ashley Moody.

Ashley, thank you. Now, you all know this, but maybe the fake news doesn't. Before Ashley was in the Senate, she was an amazing attorney general. She was a woman who threw crooks in jail, backed the blue, and kept Florida safe. That is her record. And remember, it feels like forever ago, but back when Sleepy Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were dumping millions of illegal immigrants all over the state of Florida, you know what Ashley did?

She took them to court and she won. She won for you and she won for our country. She is a champion. This is something she doesn't get as, as much credit as she should for, but she's been an amazing champion for what Bobby Kennedy would call Make America Healthy Again. [Audience member calls out, protesting]

She wants, she wants to make sure, she wants to make sure -- we got, we got a clown over here, ladies and gentlemen. [Audience boos]

[Audience chants "USA"] We -- you know, you always, you always have to laugh at these protesters because that guy, y- -- you know, he pretends like he just broke out into an emotional protest, but he made sure to bring a cell phone at the end of a pole. Ladies and gentlemen, that guy was nothing more, as we know -- this is not a representative voter from the state of Florida.

That guy is a Democrat plant who wants, he wants to raise your taxes and release il- -- illegal aliens on the streets of Florida. Well, we kicked him out just like we're gonna kick out the rest of the Democrats who wanna do the exact same thing. But, but to bring it back to Ashley, you know, she's been an amazing advocate.

This is something I care a lot about. I care a lot about it 'cause I've got four little kids at home and I wanna know, when I go to the grocery store and I look at the box, I look at the label, I wanna know what we're putting into the bodies of our young children. And I don't think you should have to have a Ph.D. in chemistry to understand what it is they put in our food.

Ashley Moody has been fighting for food transparency. She's been fighting to keep the garbage out of our food supply. And she also, very unique to this state, very important to this state, she has been fighting to make sure the state of Florida gets the aid it deserves after a bad storm. And, of course, I've got to give an amazing shout-out.

Last but certainly not least is the next governor of the free state of Florida, Byron Donalds. [Crowd chants "Byron"] Now you all know Byron has been an amazing warrior for the state of Florida for six years in Congress. He's been one of those people, one of the rare people, like Anna Paulina Luna and a few others we have here today, who fights for you every single day.

But what you may not know, because I don't think I've told many people this, is that I had an amazing interaction at the RNC convention just a couple of weeks ago with, um, a middle-aged woman who I think had been drinking. And she comes up to me and she says -- Byron had just given amazing remarks, fired the crowd up, which, of course, I love because I was about to go on. And she says, "You know, I just love you and Byron Donalds." She was from Florida.

Maybe she's here today. If you are, raise your hand. And I go, "Well, thank you, ma'am. That's, that's very kind of you. I'm so, I'm so proud of you. Uh, get out there and support Byron because we gotta make him the next governor of the state of Florida." And she says, "You know, what I love about is both, you guys are both really, really big, strong guys." And I'm like, "Oh. She's just making, making my night.

Big, strong guys, Byron Donalds and JD Vance." She says, "You know, you're both so handsome. I love your beards." [Laughter] I go, "All right. This is my favorite now, my favorite woman in the entire world." [Laughter] But remember, the next line, she's, she's been drinking a little bit, and she says -- [Laughter] -- "Are -- " she says, "are you guys related?" [Laughter] And I say, and this is, maybe I've been in politics too long, ladies and gentlemen, without skipping a beat, I said, "Yes, he's my second cousin." [Laughter] So, you gotta get out there and vote for a fighter for the state of Florida, a great champion for the people of this state, a person who's been fighting for your liberty and your prosperity, but also my second cousin, Byron Donalds, for the great state of Florida.

He's -- what Byron is gonna do is he's gonna fight hard for homeowners across the Sunshine State. You know, I was talking to him backstage and immediately I say, "What's going on? Give me the good, the bad, and the ugly." And he says, "We have got to do more to ensure the insurance industry works for policyholders in the state of Florida, not just shareholders." [Audience member calls out, inaudibly]

Byron Donalds, Byron Donalds is fighting to protect Florida parents every single day. [Audience chants "USA"]

And here's -- and here's the thing. [Audience member calls out, inaudibly]

Now, what, what, what that woman is yelling is that she wants left-wing bureaucrats in control of your schools, but Byron thinks you ought to be in control of your kids' schools. And just l- -- and just like Ashley, Byron is always gonna stand up for Florida law enforcement. He's gonna back the blue and keep your streets safe.

He's gonna stand up for officers like Deputy Moon, who led the Pledge of Allegiance earlier. Now you all know the story of Deputy Moon. He is a hero who just a few months back was shot in the line of duty while apprehending a dirtbag who had kidnapped his girlfriend and was literally holding his girlfriend hostage.

But thanks be to God, he's tough as nails, and he survived, thanks to his bravery and thanks to his fellow officers. And I appreciate you standing up for him because our job, ladies and gentlemen, is to put those officers first as they're putting their lives on the line for every single one of us. And it's not enough just to talk about how much we appreciate them, even though, of course, we do. It's not enough to make sure they get the pay and benefits even though that's exactly what they deserve.

It's our job in this room to get out there and vote and stop the police, stop the defund the police movement dead in its tracks. You know, Deputy Moon and his officers, because he was with another officer who was wounded that day, they have our backs. And it's up to us to send people to Washington who have their backs too, which is why we gotta get Ashley elected, the next senator for the great state of Florida.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what politics at its best is all about. It's about being good to our people. It's about sending leaders who fight for you rather than the bureaucrats, rather than the foreign corporations, rather than the fraudsters who've gotten rich by taking advantage of our system. You know, what Ashley and Byron want is not complicated.

It's simple. And it used to be, even 20, 30 years ago, it was bipartisan. It was simple. They want good jobs for Floridians; they want happy families; they want safe streets; and they want healthy food for you and for your children. It's the same things that President Trump and I want. It's the same things we fight for nationwide every single day in our administration.

But don't take our word for it because think back to what this administration has been able to accomplish with the help of Byron and Ashley over just 18 short months. This summer, one of the things I'm proudest of, we marked 1 million new jobs created under President Donald J. Trump. 60,000 of them here in Florida.

Every day, we are fixing an economic mess that Joe Biden and the Democrats left us with. We gotta remember that under their leadership, they had 8% inflation under Joe Biden. And in 2025, we brought it down below 2%. And so far in 2026, we've got it down below 3%. Look just at housing, home prices under Joe Biden's leadership doubled.

Now rents are falling for the first time in 20 years under Donald Trump's leadership. Consider health care. For four years, we heard Democrats, and I know Byron and Ashley heard 'em, say that they were gonna bring down prices by standing up to big pharma. What actually hundre- -- happened is that by over 100%, pharmaceutical prices skyrocket under Joe Biden and the Democrats' leadership.

But it took Donald J. Trump, supported by Byron Donalds and supported by Ashley Moody, to drag the pharmaceutical companies into Washington and say, "How dare you charge Americans more than you charge Europeans?" And that simple action, that willingness to fight for Americans rather than pharmaceutical companies means that we are seeing drug prices drop at their fastest rate since the 1960s. And thanks, thanks to Ashley and Byron and the rest of the Republicans here today.

It's not just pharmaceutical prices. We ended taxes on tips. We ended taxes on overtime. We ended taxes on car loans so long as you buy your car in the United States of America. And now nearly 5 million Floridians no longer pay taxes on Social Security. That's thanks to our hard work. Thanks to what we've done, we've put thousands of dollars back into the pockets of ordinary Floridians, from our retirees to our young families who are just starting to get their footing.

And we're once again making merit the law of the land. We killed DEI and diversity mandates. We're going after universities and corporations that reject applicants because they were born with the wrong skin color. We're hiring on merit for a change. And even though Byron and I obviously aren't related, despite what our friends at the RNC said, one of the things that unites us is this belief that we should judge people on the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

That's what your kids deserve. That's what all of our kids deserve. What we did, ladies and gentlemen, is very simple. We ended what was called the disparate impact regime that the Democrats forced on our country. And to the lunatics in Florida and beyond who say we need to bring back DEI, I say, "Ladies and gentlemen, we ain't doing it anymore.

Donald Trump won. Get used to it." We gotta remember that good jobs, safe streets, healthy families, this isn't just what your politics should be fighting for. This is your birthright as Americans. The Democrats wanna tell you that these things are special privileges, but they should belong to every American, Black or white, rich or poor, across the great state of Florida, and none of it would be possible if you have leaders who refuse to enforce the law, which unfortunately we had in our country.

For four years, under Joe Biden's leadership, that's what our nation dealt with under congressional Democrats. And for four years, amazingly, one of the rare beacons of freedom to the rest of the country was this state. Now, you all deserve a lot of credit for it, for it. You deserve credit for fighting for it. The great leaders here, including, of course, the governor who couldn't be with us here today, every single one of you deserve credit for making Florida a beacon of freedom and a rejection of the crazies for four years.

But one of the things that you ought to have is a government in Washington that fights for you rather than against you. And ladies and gentlemen, thanks to Donald J. Trump, the free state of Florida finally has an ally back in the White House. [Audience chants "America first"]

For, for 16 months, we haven't released a single illegal immigrant at the border. Meanwhile, we're doing something simple: We're stopping violent criminals and backing the blue. Now, this is not rocket science. Look what happened. Just six months after inauguration, fentanyl deaths in this great state were down by nearly 50%. That's amazing.

That means more of our neighbors, especially those who are suffering from addiction, they get an opportunity at a second chance because we stopped flooding our nation with that poison that the Mexican drug cartels were bringing in. Because of that, we now see violent crime is fallen at its fastest rate in history.

Did you know that the murder rate is at a 126-year low? Ladies and gentlemen, that's something to be proud of. And, of course, one of the things that I've been most closely related with, and Byron and Ashley have been great advocates, is that we're finally cracking down on fraud in the United States of America.

And our message to the fraudsters is simple. If you came to this country to abuse the generosity of the American people, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will put you in prison. You know, one thing I was just looking at was a crazy investigation that our administration opened this year into a ring of fraudsters who are operating out of Florida but also out of Haiti and Colombia.

Now, these guys stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in PPP loans from you, your law, law-abiding tax dollars. And you know what they did with it? They bought luxury cars and mansions, they sent hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas, and they did a lot of horrible stuff on top of that. But unfortunately, it's happening again and again in our country, and nobody was putting a stop to it until 18 months.

But in a, a truly crazy scheme, even to me, and I've seen a lot of fraud doing this work over the past few months, these guys funded the assassination of the president of Haiti using your PPP funds. The Biden folks, they knew about this, they knew about this fraud, but they did absolutely nothing. But in the Trump administration, we're never gonna let this lunacy stand, which is why, and I'm very proud of it, we just sentenced one of those money launderers to prison for two decades and everybody else involved is gonna face justice.

And ladies and gentlemen, this is the choice in this election. Sometimes it's easy to get red team versus blue team to s- -- to focus on the politics of it so much that we forget about the real policy differences. Do you want your tax dollars funding the foreign assassination of governments or do you want your tax dollars put to work to fight for you every single day?

The Democrats, I'll tell you, Ashley and Byron's colleagues in Congress, they have fought our anti-fraud efforts tooth and nail every single day. And this is the choice the good people of Florida face the next month: It's whether or not we continue to fight fraud and put Americans first, or whether we return to the failed policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, whether we return our country to the far-left radicals who'd rather burn it all down.

Now it's a live fight, I hate to say it, right here in the state of Florida. As reasonable and rational and freedom-loving as this state is, you have got some real choice Democrats running in the state of Florida. Look no further than Angie Nixon, the self-described -- it's almost too easy to make fun of her. [Laughter] The self-described socialists that the Democrats put up against Ashley Moody this fall.

Now, one of the things I love about Florida is you have so many people who came to this state, legally, of course, from Latin America, people who know that socialism kills, people who saw it in their friends and their family. Well, ladies and gentlemen, when Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist, I think the right response is to say, "Then get the hell out of here.

You don't belong in America if those are your views." But it goes further than that. This is a woman who has repeatedly, you can go and look up the tape, has repeatedly called to defund the police and abolish prisons. Now, how she squares that with her other favorite demand, which is to arrest President Donald Trump, it's hard to say. [Laughter] It's kind of a good news, bad news situation.

She wants to arrest the president, but she wants to abolish the president, so I, or abolish the prison, so I don't know what she's doing. But for all of her talk about abolishing prisons, Angie is apparently a big fan of gulags. Why else would you run, and I'm not joking here, a communism-themed bookstore?

These people are crazy. You read this stuff, ladies and gentlemen, you read this stuff. My staff will give me backgrounds on these candidates. And about half the time, Byron and Ashley, I go back to my own computer and I'm like, "Wait a second. [Laughter] There's no way they're really this crazy." [Laughter] And then you go and look up what they actually said, and they're even crazier than they let on. [Laughter] This, this cafe that she runs is called Cafe Resistance.

And for the low price of $28, Angie Nixon will sell you books with titles like Rest Is Resistance. [Laughs] [Laughter] Well, Joe Biden has done a lot of resistance then, I guess, ladies and gentlemen. [Laughter] Or she'll sell you books saying that the real founding of the United States of America was not 1776, but 1619. Or she'll sell you literal autobiographies written by people who killed police officers.

Now, if you think this sounds kooky, of course you'd be right, but that's who Angie Nixon is, a self-professed socialist who somehow owns two homes, a woman who wants to raise your taxes, but makes $300,000 a year and says it's crazy that she has to pay her own. This is a walking contradiction, this Angie Nixon, but we all know that she is a radical at heart.

And what we have to remember, ladies and gentlemen, when you go to the polls, but most importantly, 'cause I know you guys are all wise and you're gonna make the right decision, you gotta go and talk to people about how crazy Angie Nixon actually is. Because I happen to believe that the people of Florida are smart and wise, and if we tell the truth about Angie Nixon, the people of Florida are gonna kick her to the curb and send Ashley Moody to Washington.

Not to be outdone, Byron Donalds has got a real gem running against him, David Jolly. Almost too easy, ladies and gentlemen. I have the easiest job in the world. I get to talk about how crazy the Democrats are. [Laughter] Now, David Jolly is of course not a person who has ever held a real job. He was an MSNBC pundit.

And before that, he was a CNN pundit. And with any luck, after November, we can get him a podcast. [Laughter] Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I need from you. I need you to send David Jolly back to his podcast with all of 19 listeners. We cannot make him the governor of the state. Now I know of course about this 'cause I used to do TV commentating myself.

It is not a real job. And it's particularly not a real job when all you do is go on television and bash the policies like no taxes on tips that have made this state better off. Now the thing I've learned about David Jolly though is he's one of these people he'll do and say whatever it takes to stay relevant.

He flips and he flops with the wind because he's so desperate to be relevant that he'll pander and say whatever he has to get your vote. Because there's one thing that David Jolly, one constant in David Jolly's life, it's that he is desperate to rule over you. He's desperate to control you. He is desperate to have a job where he gets to tell you how to live your life.

He wants the power, the power to force your daughters to play against boys on a soccer field. He wants the power to take money from your pockets and give it to fraudsters. He wants the power to impose new taxes on you and your families. Now, David Jolly -- this is the best part of all -- he used to, allegedly he says he used to be a Republican, but he was so inspired, ladies and gentlemen, by the campaign of one Kamala Harris [Audience members call out "No"]

that he decided he had to finally switch sides. [Laughter] You gotta wonder at the wisdom of a man who was really inspired by the vice presidency of Kamala Harris. [Laughter] I can only presume it's what's prompted him to say things like, quote, "It is immoral and wrong to close down the southern border." That was that inspiration from Kamala.

He says it's immoral and wrong. And I guess he means that it's immoral and wrong to keep fraudsters and murderers and literal assassins off of Florida streets. Well, you know what I think is immoral and wrong? Apologizing for the criminals who would destroy our communities. And it's wrong to send David Jolly to the governor's mansion, and we're not gonna do it. [Laughs] Now, David was against government-run health care, now he's for it. He was against raising taxes on the middle class, but now he says he's for it. But on each and every issue, David Jolly has contorted himself like a pretzel to pander to the crazies.

And as the anti-fraud task force chair, let me say with some authority, on the Democratic side in the state of Florida, you have a fraud running for the governor of Florida. His name is David Jolly, and we gotta send him home. Ladies and gentlemen, I have traveled to my fair share of states and districts in the lead-up to the midterms.

I gotta say, I'm grateful to the free state of Florida for having good weather for me today. I was a little nervous, a little nervous it's gonna be too hot, but we have a ton of phenomenal Republican warriors up against some really radical far-left people this cycle. But I gotta tell you, as amazing as we have candidates across the country, Florida is facing one of the easiest choices I have ever seen in politics in my entire life.

On the one hand, you've got Ashley Moody and Byron Donalds, and the rest of our great Republican ticket who are fighting to keep this state free. And on the other hand, you have far-left socialists along with a few washed-up losers like David Jolly. So ladies and gentlemen, we've got people whose ideas are gonna make Florida less free, less safe, and more poor.

But you're not gonna let that happen, are you? [Audience members respond "No"]

So I guess I've got some questions for you. On November 3, are you gonna vote for low taxes, safe streets, and good schools? [Audience members respond affirmatively]

On November 3, are you gonna stand with Donald J. Trump against the radical left? [Audience members respond affirmatively]

On November 3, are you gonna stand up for an incredible team of patriots fighting to put Americans first? [Audience members respond affirmatively]

On November 3, are we gonna elect Byron Donalds and Ashley Moody? [Audience members respond affirmatively]

Ladies and gentlemen, this November 3, I want you to send a message. Send a message to the media, send a message to the Democrats, send a message to the far-left radicals who would take your state over. America belongs to those who love it, not to hate it. It belongs to you. Get out there and vote, and make sure it stays that way. God love y'all. Thank you for having me.