Remarks: JD Vance Holds a Midterm Political Rally in North Platte, Nebraska - October 22, 2026

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is great to be in the great state of Nebraska. And it's even better [ph] to here in the great town of North Platte. And we're going to talk about this a little bit later as well, but it is great to be among the Billy Bob's and Mary Jo's of America, fighting to take back this country.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great state, a hard working state, a state of proud Americans who farm, who ranch, who take pride and produce and make America run, and they make it run well. And before we get started here, I got to give a couple of shout out -- shout outs to some amazing Huskers.

And I got to start, of course, with a man who has fought for you for the past three years, who has cut the waste and the fraud in Nebraska state government for three years. He is already your governor and you're going to make him the next governor again. Jim Pillen, thank you. We've got an amazing Congressional fighter, a person who has stood with us in Washington, DC, as we've cut your taxes, cut taxes on Social Security, cut taxes on tips, a person who has helped us close the border.

That is Adrian Smith, who is fighting for you day in and day out. And here's the thing, is we've got an amazing friend of mine, but also a great public servant for the state of Nebraska. We have got somebody who has an amazing work ethic, an amazing fight, an amazing love for the state of Nebraska, and unfortunately, not the best hairdo.

But he's my dear friend, and he is a person who has made all the victories in Washington possible. He's already your Senator, and we're going to reelect him. Senator Ricketts, from the great state of Nebraska. Now, you all don't know this story, but, you know, Pete and I came in together to the United States Senate.

I was elected from the great state of Ohio and Pete, of course, from the great state of Nebraska. And we became friends as only you can become friends when you come into the United States Senate. This amazing, illustrious, incredible institution. And the thing that I loved about Pete is that he never forgets where he came from.

He loved this state, he loved its people, he loved the fact that you sent him to Washington in order to fight for you. Now, somebody asked me -- And ladies and gentlemen, that's what he's been doing. He's been fighting for your farms. He's been fighting for your ranches, he's been fighting for American energy, and he's been fighting to lower your taxes.

He has been fighting to make sure the people who feed this country can actually afford to keep on doing it. Now, I will say that it's underappreciated that the two finalists for the VP nomination were actually JD Vance and Pete Ricketts. And -- guys almost lost a great Senator. But the president made his final determination, he told me this actually on the flight in here, I was talking about Pete, how much we love him, how he's doing an amazing job.

And he said, you know, ultimately, I decided that the vice president had had to have pretty good hair. But you know what's more important than pretty good hair, is an amazing work ethic for the people of Nebraska. And what's much more important is an announcement that I am proud to make today, because Pete Ricketts has been fighting for your farmers.

Today, I am proud to announce $1.3 billion of investment in domestic fertilizer manufacturing right here in the state of Nebraska. And one of the companies, one of the two companies receiving funding, Talus AG, is opening two manufacturing facilities right here in Nebraska. And what this means, not just for Nebraska, but for the entire country, is that 32,000 farmers, farmers who are farming over four million acres all across the United States of America, they are going to have fertilizer at a lower cost and made by American hands right here in the United States of America.

That is what Pete Ricketts and Donald Trump and Jim Pillen, their entire vision for this country and for this state is American manufacturing, supporting American agriculture, so that American agriculture can produce the food that we need, and American manufacturing can produce the goods that we need.

I don't know about you, but I am sick of relying on everybody else to make our stuff and grow our food. We got to do it right here at home. What this means, ladies and gentlemen, is a major, major difference for families across this state. And it's -- as much as I just want to brag on Nebraska and Pete Ricketts, it's not just Nebraska.

Because when you all are able to grow more of our food, when you're able to produce more of the fertilizer that we need at a lower cost, it is good for every American and every one of our 50 states. But I want to brag -- but I want to brag on one of those Americans right now. I want to talk about Brad Foote, who joins us today with his daughters, London and Tilly.

Brad, where are you? I know I met you backstage. Brad runs Foote Cattle Company. Brad didn't know I was going to call him out. He's a little embarrassed, but he runs Foote Cattle Company with his two brothers right here in North Platte. Now, his parents started the business in 1985, and I'm not going to age too many people in this room, am I, when I say that that's only a year after I was born.

I just made a lot of enemies, I can see. But for more than 40 years, 40 years, ladies and gentlemen, his family has helped put fresh American beef on dinner tables around the world and, of course, in our country. Now -- Now, when we produce more fertilizer right here at home, we can bring down the cost of growing the feed that he needs for his cattle.

And when we bring down the cost of feed for his cattle, that means lower costs for ranchers like Brad, but it ultimately means lower prices for every American family who buys beef at the grocery store. And -- and, ladies and gentlemen, that's what it means to put American farmers, American workers, and American families first.

And that is what Pete Ricketts is doing every single day, and we're never going to stop fighting with him. Now, when you think about public service and what it means, fundamentally, at its best, it is about the opportunity to serve great Americans like Brad, like his beautiful family. It's about serving and fighting for the people who work hard to build something in this country that all of us love, whether it's a farm, a business, a livelihood.

It's about supporting the people that honor the generations that came before him, and hope that they can pass something on to the next generation of Nebraskans and the next generation of Americans. And I want everybody in this great state to know that in Donald J. Trump and the vice president of the United States, but in Senator Pete Ricketts, you have somebody who is always going to fight for you and will never forget where he came from.

We know that our job is to defend you, to defend your farms, defend your ranches. We're going to defend your jobs and the good wages that can support a family, and we're going to defend the American way of life that made this country what it is. You know, I am here today with my six year old son.

And if any of -- a funny little story. So my six year old son's name is Vivek. And if you pay close attention to politics, you know that a gentleman named Vivek is running for governor in the state of Ohio, a Republican. We're supporting him, good guy. But -- but I but I was in Ohio campaigning yesterday and everywhere we go, we see these giant signs, Vivek, for Ohio.

And -- and my son is like, dad, I really do love Ohio. And I was like, buddy, it's a different -- it's a different guy, but we got to get one of those signs. But, you know, driving around, campaigning with my son, you see, whether it's Ohio or Nebraska, you see our country through a different perspective.

And we fundamentally, what is this all about, ladies and gentlemen? It is because we want to leave our children a country that is stronger, that is freer, that is healthier than the one we inherited. That's what it's all about. Why do we care about Jim Pillen? Why do we care about Adrian Smith?

Why do we care so much about Pete Ricketts race? It's of course, because they're good guys and they're good public servants but it's most importantly because they are fighting every single day to preserve the American dream for the next generation. And I think it's -- And I think it's important to remember, as we continue to work hard to rebuild that American dream, it's important to take stock of where we were just two years ago.

We had, two years ago, the worst inflation crisis in 50 years in the United States of America. We had Washington bureaucrats who are trying to regulate our farmers and our manufacturers completely out of business. And we had a southern border that was wide open, allowing cartels to bring crime and poison into our country at an industrial scale.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris spent four years making life harder for the people in Nebraska who actually make this country work. Well -- Well, just about two years ago, the people of Nebraska said, we've had enough of it, and they made Donald J. Trump the president of the United States. And think about what we've done.

We've done so much in just not even two years. It's 19 months. We've cracked down on fraudsters who are stealing your tax dollars and getting rich off of them. We completely ended the green new scam that was making life too hard for our farmers. We passed no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security.

We've rebuilt America's energy economy and reinvested in fertilizer facilities, but also in refining facilities, so that in five years, we can say with confidence, America doesn't need energy anywhere in the world, we got plenty of it right here at home. We just got to empower our people to get it. And there's so much more I could -- I could talk about.

But throughout it all, Pete Ricketts has led the fight for year round E15 and a farm bill that delivers for Nebraska. Pete Ricketts has led the fight for no taxes on tips and no taxes on overtime. And Pete Ricketts has led the fight to close down the southern border, empower our law enforcement, and go to war against the cartels.

And of all the things I'm proudest of, I've got to say that the border is maybe the thing that we have most changed over the past two years. That is maybe the single accomplishment of so many that I'm the proudest of, because -- Because after four years of Joe Biden allowing millions of illegal aliens into our country, Donald J. Trump, supported by Pete Ricketts, ended that border crisis on day one.

It was over the minute that we had new leadership. Thanks to Pete Ricketts, we have had zero illegal border crossings for 17 straight months. And with the Laken Riley Act, we are giving law enforcement the tools to remove dangerous criminals from our communities all over the United States of America, and we got it done with Pete Ricketts' help.

This is what's possible when we have leaders who actually put Americans first for a change. It sounds like common sense. It should be common sense. It is not complicated, but unfortunately, common sense is something the far left Democrats completely lost over the last few years. And that brings me to the guy who is, in fact, a Democrat, but is running as far as he can from the Democrat Party, Dan Osborne.

[Audience boos] You know Democrat Dan, right? He's the guy running against Pete Ricketts for Senate. But here's the funny thing about Dan Osborne, he wants to go to Washington and vote not with the people of Nebraska. He wants to go and bend the knee to the Democrats. And don't judge him by his very shiny, well-produced TV advertisements, judge him -- judge him by who his friends are.

Judge him by the fact that George Soros just put $5 million into the state to support Dan Osborne. [Audience boos] Judge him by the fact that he's constantly begging for financial support from national Democrats. Judge him by the fact that Democrat Dan Osborne has not been getting the support of Nebraskans, he has gotten 95 percent of his donations from out of state, far left interests.

[Audience boos] But, ladies and gentlemen, I happen to think that anybody who depends for campaign contributions on George Soros is not fit to serve the people of Nebraska, so let's kick him to the curb and reelect Pete Ricketts. Now, even though he's a Democrat, and even though he doesn't like to use that word, I will say, I -- I admire a man who recognizes that Democrat is a dirty word.

My -- my six year old son has tried to implement a rule in the Vance household that just like daddy's not allowed to say the F word and that is -- unfortunately, I was raised by a grandmother who cursed like a sailor, so it sometimes happens. He has tried to tell my wife that we are not allowed to say the M word in -- in our house anymore.

And she said, what is the M word? And he said, Michigan. And -- and that's -- I know this is a town of proud Cornhuskers. That's how you know, when you may be taking the sports indoctrination a little bit too far. But, ladies and gentlemen, Dan doesn't care about this state. Dan Osborne doesn't care about the people who live in this state.

Dan is smart enough to run away from the Democrat label, even though that's exactly what he is. Dan Osborne is a far left partisan Democrat, and the way to judge him is by who donates to his campaigns. If you donate -- or if your campaign is funded by George Soros, if your campaign is funded by out of state interests, if Chuck Schumer is the biggest booster of your campaign, then you are not fit to serve the people of Nebraska.

You're a Democrat, whatever you call yourself. Now, I will say the one thing I'll give Dan Osborne a little credit for is while he doesn't represent the people of Nebraska, he has been very effective at allowing those out of state campaign contributions to give him a pretty nice lifestyle. This is a dude who has made a killing convincing out of state liberals to donate to his campaign.

And he has turned running for Congress into his personal piggy bank. Let me tell you, Dan has been very generous with other people's money, generous with himself and with his family members. As it turns out, I had to look this up, I didn't believe it, he's paid his own family more than half $1 million from his campaign account, all while telling struggling people that he really understands and wants to support them.

My friends -- [Audience boos] My friends, this is a joke and it's insult -- an insult to your intelligence, it's an insult to my intelligence. It's an insult to the intelligence of everybody in this great state. But you know what? I happen to think that you're a hell of a lot smarter than Dan Osborne thinks you are, which is why you're never going to send him to the United States Senate.

And before I finish, I just want to say that, you know, the problem with Democrat Dan is that there's something dark there, something that goes much deeper than just his politics, because it's not just that he disagrees with us on a tax policy or a regulatory policy. It's that he very clearly doesn't understand ordinary Nebraskans and that he very clearly thinks that he is better than you are.

All you got to do is judge a man by what he says when he doesn't think the cameras are on. And I'm sure you saw what Dan Osborne said about Nebraskans who voted for Donald Trump, by the way, by -- for overwhelming margins in the state of Nebraska. He gave them the nickname of Billy Bob and Mary Jo. And he said, their lives, and I am quoting here, probably suck so effing bad.

And let me tell you something, when Dan Osborne makes fun of Mary Jo or Billy Bob, he's talking not just about you, he's talking about people like my mamaw and papaw, people who didn't go to elite colleges or have expensive cars, but they got up every single morning, they went to work, they did their best to give their children a better life than the one that they had.

They are the kind of folks who meet their buddies down at the local cafe for a cup of coffee. They talk about the Huskers. They talk about their grandchildren. They're the people who stand up and put their hands over their hearts when they hear the national anthem. They're people who are damn proud of where they came from, and they have every right to be damn proud of the state of Nebraska.

And you got to ask yourself, what does it say about a man like Dan Osborne, that he looks at those people and he sees something to make fun of? Because I look at those people, I look at our people, and I know Pete Ricketts does the exact same thing, and what we see is the very best of our country.

We see the people who built this country. We see the people who feed this country. We see the people who would take the clothes off their back to give a sweatshirt to a stranger who was cold in that Nebraska winter. What we see, ladies and gentlemen, is the people who make America great and a person who insults you is not fit to be your Senator.

What I see, ladies and gentlemen, before me and in the state of Nebraska, is I see a room full of patriots. I see a room full of people who know that they deserve the respect that comes from having built the United States of America. I see a group of people who deserves a Senator who's going to fight for them, not a Senator who's going to insult them.

Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to say one more thing, which is that I need -- I need a favor. And that favor -- no, sir, let's focus on the election we got ahead of us. What we got here, ladies and gentlemen, is that we have a Democrat party, and I'll give you a little secret, I actually wish they weren't so crazy.

I was raised, a lot of you know this, by union Democrats, by a steelworker who spent 40 years of his life working at a weld shop, at a steel mill, the same kind of people that you know, salt of the earth, patriotic, they love this country. To him, the Democrat Party was the party of Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

You may not agree with it on tax policy, but it was a party of patriotic human beings. That is not what we have in today's Washington, DC. We have a party of people who talk about men in women's sports. We have a party of people who look down on the Mary Jo's and the Billy Bob's of this state. We have a party of people who are so focused on insanity that they have forgotten how to represent the people who built the United States of America.

This Democrat Party, ladies and gentlemen, it needs an ass kicking. Excuse my language. You know, Pete, you may -- you may not realize this, but Pete is one of these people -- Pete Ricketts is one of these people in Washington, DC, who can find consensus. He can talk to anybody. I've seen -- it's an amazing skill.

It's the kind of skill that you want in a political leader. He can sit down and talk with anybody. We could have a country where Democrats and Republicans work together better to solve our country's problems, but it is not going to happen if the Democrats keep sending people to Washington who care more about men in women's sports than they do about making your lives better.

[A medical emergency occurs in the audience]

So I need a favor from every single person in this room. I need you -- you OK? All right. Looks like we got a medical issue, everybody, so let's just say a prayer and hope everybody's OK. Hey, to my team, get the doc -- grab the doctor. Thank you. We'll all just stay calm and let these great doctors and law enforcement do their jobs.

[Inaudible] Hello, everybody. While they're -- while they're working on her, maybe, uh, those who -- who are of the praying type would join me in a prayer. I, always in moments like this, try to pray as the Lord taught us to pray. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread [Inaudible], as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, now and forever. Amen.

Thank you, JD.

How is she doing? [Inaudible] OK. All right. Let -- let me leave you with just three -- three quick things. Number one, first of all, praise be to God, she's doing fine. She's doing fine. Now -- now, second of all, they may want to take her out of here on an ambulance, so I'm going to ask maybe somebody afterwards to give some direction to the crowd, because if we want to maybe just keep everybody here so that they can take her out in in peace and comfort, we would very much appreciate that.

And the third thing I will say is that this is apparently, she just told me, is her first rally. And given that she had a lot of fun, but then not so much fun at the end of her first rally, the best way that we can repay her is, one, by letting her get out of here to focus on her health and number two, by electing Pete Ricketts.

Nebraska, we love you. I'll be back soon. Great to see you.