Speech: JD Vance Addresses a Midterm Campaign Rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa - September 18, 2026

Hello, Iowa. How we doing? Thank you all for that incredible welcome. I wanna start here by thanking the men and women who serve for two particular reasons this Friday. The first is that today marks POW Missing in Action Recognition Day. So give it up to all those who served and never came home. And the second is that I wanna wish our great US Air Force airmen and women a very happy birthday.

It was 79 years ago to the day that the United States Air Force was founded. So happy birthday to all the Air Force veterans out there. I will say, as a Marine Corps veteran, we just celebrated 251 years in the Marine Corps. But in defense of the Air Force, airplanes didn't exist then. So it's not really y'all's fault that you're not a little bit older.

But I cannot think of a better place to honor both of those occasions than Iowa's fourth home to Sioux City's own Brigadier General George Bud Day. Bud spent five years in Vietnamese captivity and went on to become the most decorated officer in Air Force history. I'm proud of him and I know this state is proud of Bud Day.

Now I wanna have a few more notes of appreciation. I, first I wanna make it, um, a, a shout-out to an amazing public servant. I know she couldn't be here today, but a- -- we gonna elect Ashley Hinson, the next United States Senator for the great state of Iowa. We gotta give a shout-out to three amazing statewide leaders who are here today and deserve your vote for reelection this fall.

My dear friend and an amazing public servant for Iowa, Attorney General Brenna Bird. Brenna, thank you so much. There's Brenna. We got Secretary of State Paul Pate. Where is Paul at? And Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig. Mike, where you at? Mike, thank you man. A great fighter for Iowa farmers. And of course, we're thrilled to be joined by your next congressman, the great Chris McGowan.

Chris, thank you so much for being here. He's a rock star. Now Chris has been fighting for good jobs. He's been fighting for a strong border. He's been fighting for lower prices and safer streets. Chris McGowan is exactly the kind of Republican we need in Washington to stand up for Iowa values. And he is gonna make an amazing congressman an amazing public servant for the men and women of the Fourth District of Iowa.

Chris, thank you. And last but certainly not least, it is my honor to be here today with a man I know you're all here for, the next governor of the state of Iowa, Zach Lahn. Zach, Zach's biography speaks for itself. He's a farmer, he's a businessman, he's a guy who actually signed a paycheck, not just received a paycheck, he's also a sixth generation Iowan and above all.

He is a person who wakes up every single day and thinks about how we can defend the jobs, the prosperity and the public safety of Iowans from every single walk of life. Zach knows that Iowa does not exist. The United States does not exist without strong families. And that's why he is committed to put parents in charge of their kids' education.

That's why he's committed to make sure that Iowa is a place where you can put down roots, raise your children and know that if your children wanna build a life, they can stay right here in Iowa. They don't have to go somewhere else and do it. And importantly, Zach knows that strong families are not possible without healthy food at the kitchen table.

And that's why more than any person running in Washington, D.C., he is fighting to keep Iowa's soil rich, your water clean. He is fighting for the food and the water and the medicine that we put in our kids' bodies to be clean. And Zach knows that you cannot do that, that you cannot produce healthy food, of course, without the amazing farmers in the state of Iowa.

And that's why he trusts the people in this room, not D.C. bureaucrats or Des Moines bureaucrats to look after their own land. It's why he's gonna take on the corporations and the foreign buyers who treat Iowa farmland like it's at sale for auction instead of belonging as the birthright of the people of Iowa.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is our heritage. This is what we own and deserve to own as Iowans and as citizens of the United States. Your grandparents, your great-grandparents, your family for generations did not build up this land, till this land, put their sweat and blood into this land so that it could be bought and sold by somebody who never set foot on it so we'll ask Zach Lahn to protect Iowa farmland.

But I'm gonna tell you something else about Zach Lahn. A lot of people who run for governor spend 20 years learning how to say nothing. And some politicians are very good at it. AOC. [Laughter] Zach does not have that problem. One of the reasons I love this candidate, one of the reasons I love him as a governor for your state is that he's not a politician.

He doesn't talk like a politician. And unlike people who have spent their entire life in politics, when he opens up his mouth, he's saying something interesting. He's not plotting constantly on how to get into the next bigger and higher office. He is a man of conviction and he's a man who cannot be bought or told by anyone what to do. He's not for sale to big business, he's not for sale to big pharma, and he is certainly not for sale to the career politicians in Washington D.C. Zach Lahn exists to fight for you and that's exactly what he's gonna do if you put him in the governor's mansion.

Zach is gonna be a fighter, ladies and gentlemen. That's what we need. We need somebody who's willing to stand up, stand up and protect your families, stand up and protect your farmers and your farmland, stand up for every single Iowan who's been told to sit down and take it, who's been sold -- told that they're backwards if they believe that Iowa farmland oughta belong to Iowans, who've been told they're racist for believing that Iowa schools oughta go to American citizens and not to the foreign born.

So this November, let's elect Zach, let's get him in the governor's mansion and let's put him to work for the state of Iowa. Now Zach, of course, is gonna be a great ally to those in Washington who are fighting for you as opposed to against you. And I wanna talk to, take a minute here just to talk about what President Trump has been able to deliver across our nation in just 18 months.

Last month, we hit one million new jobs created under this administration. But unlike the last administration where all of the net job growth, all of the net job growth under Joe Biden and the Democrats went to the foreign born, 100% of those one million jobs went to American citizens right here in the United States of America.

Of course, the thing I may be most proud of, the media doesn't wanna talk about it of course, but 18 months ago we inherited the worst border crisis in the history of the United States of America, but for 16 months straight we have released approximately zero illegal aliens across that southern border. And it turns out when you get the violent criminals out of your country, you see the largest crime drump- -- drop in violent crime in the history of the United States of America.

Murder rates, because we got the bad guys out, and importantly, because we supported our great law enforcement, America's murder rate is now at its lowest rate in 126 years. I am particularly proud that the President of the United States, after congressional Democrats talked about it for my entire life. I'm 42 years old, don't hold it against me. For 42 years, I've heard Democrats say that they're gonna take on Big Pharma and lower the cost of prescription drugs.

And for 42 years, I've seen Democrats talk about it, but do absolutely nothing. And then I saw a Republican President of the United States call the executives of big pharmaceutical companies and say, "It is unfair, and it is ridiculous to charge Americans a higher rate for drugs than you charge Europeans." And that's why we've seen the fastest drop in prescription drugs in 60 years in the United States of America.

I'm a big believer that American homes and American land ought by right go to American citizens, not to illegal aliens and not to big corporations either. So what we did just a couple of months ago, the President of the United States made sure that we banned Wall Street from buying up all of America's homes and making sure they go to you and your kids and your grandkids.

And, and Chris McGowan knows this better than anybody, but despite the Democrats' best efforts, what do we do on taxes? While billionaires and foreign corporations and congressional Democrats fought us every single step of the way, what do we do? We ended taxes on tips for hard-working service workers. We ended taxes on overtime.

And we ended taxes on Social Security because if you paid in, because if you paid in to Social Security for your entire life, or you're working 60 hours away from your wife and your kids, your family, then I think we should send a simple message. Tell the politicians to keep their grubby hands out of your pocket, let you keep more of your money.

But I may be most proud of what we've been able to do for Iowa farmers and farmers all across the United States of America. You know, and I know that our farmers are the hardest-working. They're the most patriotic men and women that any of us will ever meet. And we want farming to be easier in the United States of America, not harder.

Of all the crazy things, of all the crazy things, ladies and gentlemen, that I saw during the Biden administration is do you know that it was under Joe Biden's leadership that for the first time the United States became a net importer of our own food? Now you know what that means? That means that we got more of our food from outside the United States of America than we did from our own farmers. [Audience boos] Now you wanna talk about security, you wanna talk about national security?

What does it mean for the safety of our kids, of our grandkids when we let foreign countries, many of which do not have our best interest at heart, when we let those foreign countries buy our food? So what Donald J. Trump did when he came into office is he said, "We are done with that. We are growing American food on American farms for American families." And I always tell you, ladies and gentlemen, whenever you hear me talk during this midterm campaign, I'll say "Rome was not built in a day, because we know there's a lot of work to do." But just two years in, not even two years in, President Trump has cut that deficit by 42%, and it's fallen even faster this year.

Where bad trade policy, let's be honest, from both Democrats and Republicans have made it impossible for Iowa farmers to get their food to market, we now have, thanks to Donald Trump's hard work and fighting on behalf of Iowa farmers, two billion new consumers all over the world who are now open to American food instead of closed to American food.

Co- -- corn experts are up by 35%. Markets that were closed to our beef and dairy for decades are taking Iowa beef and dairy today. And China has committed to buying 17 billion from our farmers just this year. Now that's one side of the equation, of course, ladies and gentlemen, but the other is we gotta make it more affordable to actually grow things here, and we gotta get Washington out of the way of our great farmers.

And that's why we made the death tax exemption permanent, because we did not want Washington to try to steal your farm when you try to pass your farm from one generation to the next. When you worked that farm for 50, 60, 70 years, and you go and meet the Lord, your farm ought to go to your family, not to D.C. bureaucrats.

And that's how it is now. It's why we fought for your right to repair, which puts tens of thousands of dollars back in your pocket every time you fix your own equipment. And it's why we strengthened the farm safety net and expanded crop insurance. All in all, we have delivered $40 billion in direct aid to farmers in Iowa, across -- in Iowa, but also across the United States of America, and we've cut the red tape.

Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to what we've been doing, farmers finally have a fighter in Washington, D.C. for them instead of against them. But it's not just the support for the farmers, it's also that we ended some of the Democrats' most ridiculous policy. Remember that ridiculous EV mandate that was costing Iowa farmers thousands of dollars so that rich people on the East Coast could buy an electric car, but how was it helping you?

Remember how Iowa farmers need to get their E15 out everywhere. We've cut restrictions on E15 more than any administration in American history. And as the president said, he will sign a year-round bill the day that Congress puts it on his desk. So let's tell our legislators, Democrat and Republican, "Put that bill on President Trump's desk.

Let's fight for our Iowa farmers." Now I wanna talk just about what this looks like to real people, what it looks like on one farm right here in Iowa. We are amazingly honored and very lucky to be joined today by Clint Gochenauer. Did I pronounce that right Clint? Clint Gochenauer, who's here with his wife Alma and their five kids.

Clint, beautiful family. God bless you guys.

We love you, JD.

Now, as I understand it, Clint played football with Zach. Is that correct, Zach?

Yes.

Okay, who was better, you or him?

He got injured more.

[Laughs] He got injured more is what Zach said. That was a good politician answer, Zach. [Laughter] You're getting good at this, man. So today Clint and his brother, they raise corn, soybeans and hogs in Harrison County. And as a result of the working family's tax cuts for the first time in 24 years, this really, like, you talk about politics and policy and you fight with the Democrats all day, this is why we do this, ladies and gentlemen, because for the first time in 24 years, Clint is expanding the base acreage on his farm.

First time in 24 years. That's awesome. And because this president went out and opened new markets abroad, he's selling record amounts of what he grows. Now, Clint is the fifth generation to farm the land here in Iowa. And you can see he's got his beautiful family with him on the stage. Look, our job is to make sure that when their turn comes to take over that farm, it remains a place where a family can actually make a living.

For too long, Washington has said it doesn't care about our farmers, it doesn't care about our fu- -- food security, it doesn't care about our food safety. My friends, what's on the ballot in November is whether we have a government that fights for Clint and fights for Iowa farmers or fights against them.

And, and we gotta be honest, just to get a little partisan here, that as much as we love everybody across our country, Democrats, Independents, Republicans, the people who are running as elected Democrats, the people asking for your votes in Iowa and in Washington, they are not the party that my grandparents grew up talking about.

I was raised by a union steel worker, a man who told me that Democrats, FDR's Democrat party, JFK's Democrat party was the party of the working man. I gotta be honest with you, and I think all of you see it, I'm sure we've got some former Democrats in this crowd, this is not FDR's party, as much as we might wish it was, it's not JFK's party.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's not even Bill Clinton's party. Today's Democrat party has decided that this country needs to not be preserved and built upon, but this country needs to be utterly transformed. And it's ordinary men and women in states like Iowa who are standing in the way, they see you as the obstacles to the transformation they seek in our country.

It's all over the United States of America. In Michigan this November, the Democrats are running candidates who say we need to, quote, "Destroy the American way of life," and want to destroy the nuclear family. [Audience boos] In New York, some of them call for the, quote, "Total eradication of Western civilization." There's somebody- -- there's somebody [Laughs] running for Congress in New York, and I'm, I promise I'm not joking about this, who on July 4th, 2026, our 250th anniversary as a country, she said that July 4th is actually about the liberation of Palestine and Puerto Rico. [Audience boos] You'd almost laugh about it. You can imagine Thomas Jefferson sitting there with his quill pen thinking about this is about the liberation of Palestine and Puerto Rico.

But unfortunately, it's not funny because these people are dead serious. And this election is a referendum on common sense versus pure, unadulterated crazy. Let's send the crazy packing and get them out of Washington, D.C., and get them out of Des Moines. Now, some of the Democrats running this fall, they are out-and-out lunatics.

They don't disagree with us about tax policy or regulatory policy. They have lost their ever loving minds. These are the ones who will tell you that our history is evil and this country needs to be bulldozed and started over from the beginning. Now, others -- [Audience boos] -- others feel the same and have said the same in the past, but they're smart enough to realize that the country hasn't lost its mind, and so they try to be just a little bit more subtle.

In Kansas, the Democrats are running this guy, his name is Adam Hamilton for Senate. Now, he's got kind of a G-wiz, I'm a nice pastor vibe, but he's a man who tells his congregation not about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that they need to repent for their white privilege while eating beef. [Audience boos] In Texas, they're running a guy by the name of James Talarico -- [Audience boos] -- who says [Laughs] that God is non-binary and there are six genders.

He says, and I quote, "Parents are abusive, abusive if they refuse to trans their kids and give them the experimental pharmaceuticals that Zach Lahn is fighting against." Now, because this, because there's an election going on, Talarico of course has been forced to walk back some of this insanity. In his words he, quote, "Missed the mark." But I want to be clear, Talarico and the rest of the lunatics running and asking for your vote, they didn't miss the mark, they hit exactly where they were aiming.

They just didn't expect that you all would be paying attention to it. And that brings me -- [Audience member calls out, inaudibly]

-- yes, you are, ma'am. And that brings me right here to Council Bluffs because running against Zack this November is a man who is cut from the exact same cloth as Adam Hamilton and James Talarico, a guy by the name of Rob Sand. [Audience boos] Now, he watches TV advertisements. Rob Sand, he says that he's a moderate.

He wants to make sure you hear him groaning about partisanship. He'll say, "Why do we even need labels?" That's what he says. But it's a strange thing to complain about from a guy who has spent his entire life working for and donating to far-left Democrat causes. Rob, if partisanship is a problem, and it is, the first place is to look in the damn mirror, Rob, because you've been a partisan Democrat your whole life.

Rob's dream ever since he was a kid was to serve the Democrat party, and aside from a brief stint as an underwear model in Europe, did not expect to be saying those words in Council Bluffs. [Laughter] That's exactly how he spent his entire career, as a partisan servant to the far left. Now, because Rob's a career politician, he's got a 20-year record.

Don't judge him by what he says on his TV commercials when he's trying to trick you. Judge him by what he's actually done while he's been in office for two decades. Take just one example. Today, Rob says that he opposes girls in boys' sports. Okay. All of us oppoy- -- oppose girls in boys' sports, because it's insane.

We wanna protect our little girls in their locker rooms from being preyed upon. Pretty common sense. But, but just one year ago today, Rob railed against the very legislation that would have banned it. Now, what kind of a man supports men in women's locker rooms? But importantly, what kind of a man pretends that he doesn't believe that just so he can earn your vote, when his own voting record is there for everybody to see?

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm making a very simple request. Don't judge Rob by what he says on well-produced TV advertisements. Judge Rob Sands by what he has done in 20 years. And by that standard, send him packing, get him out of Des Moines and get Zach Lahn to support the great state of Iowa. For years, this guy has been saying, "It is discrimination to follow your deeply-held beliefs on what it means to be a man or a woman." It's discrimination, in other words, if you oppose letting a boy into your daughter's locker room.

That's what's led Rob to passionately defend a children's book about, and I quote, "Non-binary parents and poly families." That's the guy who wants to be your governor. [Audience boos] It's why, it's why he's gone to great lengths to keep those perverted books in your kids' grade school libraries. Not the high schools, not kids who may be old enough to understand it. He is trying to put the most perverse material in the libraries of your children. [Audience boos] And it's not, Now, look, that is reflective of the kind of man he is, the kind of values that he has, but it's not just the gender insanity.

For years, Rob Sand has fought against your Second Amendment rights. For years, he has defended AOC's Green New Scam and the increase in cost that it created. He's bragged about being endorsed by Planned Parenthood for far-left views on partial birth abortion. And when pressed about it, the man has the audacity to hide behind scripture.

It's some of the most nakedly cynical politics I've seen in my entire life. But it shouldn't be a surprise, because Rob is a billionaire who has repeatedly fought against tax cuts for middle class Iowans. He's a professional Democrat who now says he doesn't believe in political parties. Rob Sand has spent this whole campaign running away from the things he spent the rest of his career fighting for.

And now he's banking on voters being too dumb to see what's happening. Well, my friends, Iowa sees exactly what's happening, and on November 3rd, they're gonna say it loud and clear, "Get the hell out of Des Moines, Rob Sands. We're gonna take back our state." Ladies and gentlemen, this, this is the choice this fall.

On the one side is a man who spent his entire career telling Iowa what Iowa is allowed to think. And on the other is a farmer who will spend every day of his term listening to you, fighting for you, defending to you. So today I, I got two simple questions and I got two simple requests. Are we gonna send a far left radical to Washington D.C., or are we gonna send Chris McGowan to Washington D.C.? Are we gonna send a billionaire who has supported poisoning your water and your food to Des Moines to be your governor? [Audience responds "No"]

Are we gonna s- -- are we gonna send a guy who wants to send perverted literature into the schools of seven-year-old children? [Audience responds "No"]

Are we gonna support a guy who thinks that you're too dumb to actually pay attention to the record that he's had for 20 years? [Audience responds "No"]

But are we gonna send a man who fights for you, who listens to you, and cares about you? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we gonna send a man who's been fighting to get that poison out of our food and water, instead of fighting to put it in? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we gonna send a man who has fought for Iowa farmers every single day because he is an Iowa farmer? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we gonna send Zach Lahn to the governor's mansion? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Ladies and gentlemen, the choice is this simple, it's common sense versus crazy. It's a man who listens to you versus a man who looks down on you. It's a governor who fights for you versus a governor who fights against you. Ladies and gentlemen, you have an opportunity to send not just Rob Sand, but the entire Democrat party a message, check the crazy at the door and learn to fight for Americans for a change.

Vote Zach Lahn in November. God bless you all, and thank you for having me.