Speech: JD Vance Holds a Midterm Political Rally in Fairbanks, Alaska

Thank you. Thank you. It is amazing to be in Fairbanks with your current and next Sen. Dan Sullivan. First of all, I want to thank everybody for being here. I've got to thank your great Gov. Dunleavy. Thank you for hosting us in this beautiful state. My first time in Alaska, ladies and gentlemen, and my 49th state.

So I was in Florida last week campaigning, and I think that in, uh, in just about four days, I've experienced the entire North American climate. But even if it's a little colder than I'm used to, let me tell you how grateful I am for the amazingly warm Alaska welcome here today. It's an honor to be here. So a couple weeks ago, I was talking to my dear friend Dan Sullivan.

I said, "Dan, you've got a very big state, famously a very big state. And this is my very first time visiting. Where do we start?" And without missing a beat, he said, "Fairbanks." Now, this is, of course, the city where his beautiful wife, Julie, calls home and where the two of them first settled to raise their family.

And in my short time here, I've learned that it is indeed an incredibly special place. You guys have got a beautiful town with an amazing university system. You've got the northern lights. Hell, you even got people who will ski to work when it's 60 below zero. And I understand that Fairbanks has its city elections tomorrow.

So, before anything else, let me encourage all of you to get out there in the morning and make sure to vote and vote the right way. Now, ladies and gentlemen, Alaska, as you know, is a remarkable culture. You're tough, you're self-reliant, you feel pride in your past and confidence in a great Alaska future.

It's an attitude exemplified by the two men I am proud to stand here with today. First of all, Congressman Nick Begich. Give it up for Congressman Nick Begich. See you, Nick. And, of course, the great Sen. Dan Sullivan. And let me, now I wanna say a few words about each, and I'm gonna start with Nick. Now, this is a guy who amazingly doesn't need an introduction, which is unbelievable for a first-term member of the U.S. House.

But I gotta tell you, ladies and gentlemen, Nick Begich is a machine for the state of Alaska. In just a year and a half on the job, he's already got 14 bills passed out of the House, and six, six pieces of legislation have been signed into law by the president of the United States. And I didn't realize this, but that's actually the most by a freshman in the history of the United States House of Representatives.

That's incredible. Now, you might ask, how has he gotten that all done? And the simple truth is because he has taken that great Alaskan work ethic and he's brought it to Washington, D.C. Every single day, Nick cares about one single thing, and that's for delivering for each and every single person in this room, each and every single person in the state of Alaska.

So November 3rd, in just over, just less than a month, I'm asking you to support a guy who has always had Alaska's back, support a guy who fights for you every single day, support the reelection of Congressman Nick Begich. And now, of course, I gotta talk about my dear friend, your incredible senator and one of the best people that I served with during my two years in the United States Senate.

Now, I'll tell you a little story that a couple of days ago, I was talking with our great secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Marco said, you know, and Marco said, he's, you know, said, "There are two kinds of guys in the United States Senate. There are the guys who wanna show up and go on TV and just, you know, earn a lot of credibility for themselves, and there are guys who show up to get things done." Now, I said, "Marco, first of all, don't, don't, don't criticize the people who show up and get on TV. That made me vice president of the United States." But when we talk about a guy who shows up to get things done, a guy who doesn't care whether he's popular in Washington, D.C., a guy who doesn't care how many hits he gets on TV, a guy who cares about whether he fights for the men and women of this state, that is Marine Corps veteran and your great Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Now, Dan, ladies and gentlemen, I gotta tell you, he simply does not let up even when I want to, as vice president of the United States. He is always the guy calling, saying, "What can we do for the people of Alaska?" Now, it's no surprise, of course, this is a man who has spent his life, not as a U.S. senator, but most importantly, as a United States Marine.

And I, and I have to say, as another Marine, as a fellow Marine, Dan is the kind of Marine who kind of terrified the rest of us because he's driven, he is relentless, and he will let nothing get between him and his goal. And let me also say, as a U.S. senator, Dan has devoted that same kind of determination to the well-being of each and every person of the state.

Take it from me, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, you don't even have to take it from me because I don't think there's a single person in the Trump administration Cabinet who hasn't gotten texts from Dan in the middle of the night making sure Alaska gets what it needs. When, when you become the vice president of the United States, you know, you get flown around in this amazing plane right behind us, and you get this beautiful house in Washington, D.C., but what nobody tells you is that Dan Sullivan is gonna text you at 3 in the morning with lessons about commercial salmon fishing.

They don't tell you that Dan is gonna call you every single night saying, "How do we get more for the state of Alaska?" And the problem for anybody who stands between the best interests of this state is that they've got a senator who just doesn't quit. Ladies and gentlemen, you have a senator who just doesn't quit.

Nobody can out-hustle Dan, and that's why we're gonna get him elected. And it's, the thing I, it's amazing about Dan is, is he loves this state. I, I, I think as, as somebody who chose to live here, really only can, somebody who sees it from a very unique perspective. You know, he loves Anchorage, he loves Fairbanks, he loves the rural parts of this state.

He has delivered for Fairbanks, and he talks to me all the time about the amazing university ecosystem here in Fairbanks. He talks about the incredible men and women in uniform. He talks about Alaska's fishermen. He talks about its workers. He talks about its Native communities. This is a guy who loves this state and knows it every single inch.

And he knows it every single inch and serves every single inch of it. He's delivered for every Alaskan who wants the freedom to build a good life right here in the place that you call home. And that's all you really want from a U.S. senator. He doesn't want to tell you how to live your life. He doesn't want to control you.

He wants Washington, D.C., to fight for you, and that's exactly what it does under his leadership. Now, the good news is you have an amazing person to vote for, for your next U.S. senator. Unfortunately, you do not have a great person running on the other side. And so, before I get too into the weeds on Dan's record, I want to speak a little bit about the person the Democrats are running against this amazing patriot.

The same woman, I should note, that Alaskans kicked out of Congress in 2024 when Nick Begich walloped her. Now, her name is Mary Peltola, and I had to practice saying that because even though I'm the vice president of the United States, this is a person who just doesn't show up. Doesn't show up to work. Doesn't show up for you.

Doesn't show up to do her job. She is everything the opposite of Dan Sulan- -- Sullivan. Where he is a fighter, a workhorse and a relentless advocate for this state, she is not. Now, let me start by saying that, in contrast to Nick and Dan, Mary Peltola couldn't get a single bill signed into law over her two terms in Congress.

Not a single piece of legislation. In part, it's probably because she had one of the worst attendance records in the history of the United States Congress. Her sole job was to support Alaskans in the House of Representatives, yet she couldn't be bothered to show up for one in five votes. Ladies and gentlemen, I gotta tell you, I was a senator for all of two years.

It's not that hard of a job. You show up. You fight for your people. But the most important thing you do, I'm not talking about what Dan does. I'm not talking about calling the vice president and the president and demanding more for your state. At a bare minimum, just show up and cast your vote. I see a, I see a lot of kids, I see a lot of kids in this room.

How would your teachers grade you if you didn't even show up for class one in five days? If you didn't turn in one in five of your homework assignments? Ladies and gentlemen, you would fail, and that's exactly what Mary has been, a failure for the state of Alaska. Despite that, she always managed to show up when the far-left activists needed her.

She was there to vote to keep the Mexican border wide open, flooding our communities with fentanyl and drugs. She was there to vote to allow boys to compete in girls sports. [Audience boos]

She was there to vote to give illegal aliens the ability to participate in American elections. [Audience boos]

Here's the thing, ladies and gentlemen: When the far left calls, Mary answers, and she does exactly what they tell her to do. Now, I think back to 2023, when she was in the U.S. House, and Mary Peltola did something good for once. I'll give her a little bit of credit. She co-led a bill to roll back radical Biden administration policies banning new oil and gas leases across America.

But here's the crazy thing. That piece of legislation, a piece of legislation that she authored -- when Nancy Pelosi called and said, "Vote against your own bill. Vote against the people of Fairbanks," do you know what she did? She bent the knee to Nancy Pelosi and did exactly what that far-left radical told her to do. [Audience boos]

Lady -- ladies and gentlemen, if you can't be bothered to vote for your own piece of legislation, then you do not deserve to be a U.S. senator for the great people of Alaska. Now, here's the sad thing about Mary Peltola, is I don't think that she was ever interested in serving the people of the state, but she sure did like the perks of being a politician.

Over the course of a year, she turned a campaign committee into her personal slush fund, spending nearly $200,000 on fancy hotels, on nice restaurants in D.C. and beyond, when she wasn't even campaigning for office. Instead, she spent thousands and thousands of dollars on Grubhub, on DoorDash. And I have nothing against Grubhub or DoorDash, but I want you to spend your own money on Grubhub and DoorDash, not taxpayer dollars on Grubhub and DoorDash.

And what's even crazier is that while she was using campaign money and taxpayer money to support a very lavish lifestyle, she was working as a lobbyist, making almost half a million dollars a year. Ladies and gentlemen, think about the corruption of Washington, D.C. Think about the revolving door, where you go and serve in Congress for two terms, you don't get a single thing done, and then you immediately run to go cash a check as a lobbyist.

That person who used that revolving door to enrich herself instead of serve you, she now stands before the people of Alaska, and she demands that you continue to fund the next generation of Mary's gravy train. [Audience boos]

She's come crawling back, hat in hand, asking for your support. Is that gonna happen? [Audience responds "No"]

Are we gonna remember that Mary didn't pass a single piece of legislation in Congress? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we gonna allow Mary to get rich off of our tax dollars anymore? [Audience responds "No"]

Absolutely not. So, are we gonna elect Dan Sullivan, the next senator from Alaska? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Now, I wanna talk a little bit about Dan, because as, as much as Mary is a servant of the far left, as much as she has failed to even show up to do her job, fundamentally, the opportunity in this election is not just to kick Mary out of D.C. for good; it's to ensure that a great public servant like Dan Sullivan gets six more years to fight for you and your family every single day.

Now, I gotta tell you, and I've seen the papers on this, when Dan Sullivan got into office, this is something he doesn't get enough credit for: The Pentagon, the Department of War, what we then call the Department of Defense, it treated Alaska as a strategic backwater, as something to forget and ignore. But Dan Sullivan looked at the situation and said, "Alaska, it's not just good economics for my state, it's great national security for the people of America." And as a result, as a result of his vision, but also his hard work, Alaska is seeing the largest military buildup since World War II. No more does the Pentagon kick Alaska to the curb, no more does it ignore the incredible strategic opportunity of this incredible state.

What we have said is that Alaska is as much a part of our country as the other 49 states, and we are gonna fight for it and we're gonna defend it because of Sen. Dan Sullivan. Ladies and gentlemen, s- -- so much of what's happening right down the road at Eielson, home to two squadrons of F-35s, I don't, I, I don't know if Ohio has two squadrons of F-35s. [Laughs] Dan.

The historic 11th Airborne Division and billions of dollars of new missile defense investments through the Golden Dome. Ladies and gentlemen, we, of course, had to have one person who wants to ruin the party, but our message to him is, "No, we're not gonna elect that far-left radical. We're gonna elect Dan Sullivan." But here, here, here's the thing.

Let, let's talk about what this means for Alaska. One, it makes your state safer. There was, there were, for a very long time -- America's enemies looked at Alaska with your incredible natural resources, the incredible opportunity, the strategic opportunities of this state, and it, the enemy saw a territory that was undefended.

We changed that, but we didn't just change it and we didn't just make Alaska more secure. We created good-paying jobs and new opportunities for businesses right here in Fairbanks. And we created stronger communities all across the state. By investing in Alaska's national security, we made Fairbanks a military powerhouse, and I know you're proud of that.

Now, no trip to Alaska would be complete without talking a little bit about fish. And I will say I had for dinner, my first trip to Alaska, I had delicious Alaska halibut for dinner tonight. Thank you all very much. Now, Mary Peltola will talk a lot about fish. I have already seen her advertisements talking about how much she cares about commercial fishing in this state.

But what did she do when she was in office? My one piece of advice, ladies and gentlemen, I'll never tell you exactly how to vote. Obviously, I'm here to support my friend Dan Sullivan, but you are gonna make up your own mind. But the one thing that I would tell you is never trust a politician by what they say; judge a politician by what they did when they had the chance.

And what, and what did Mary Peltola do for Alaska's fishermen when she was in office? Not a damn thing. Dan, meanwhile, Dan Sullivan is the exact opposite. He banned fish imports from Russia. He's guaranteed fishermen have a voice in USDA programs by securing funding for the Office of Seafood. And it's thanks to Dan that our Coast Guard is now patrolling the waters, ensuring that Alaska's fish go to Alaska's fishermen, not to foreigners who are trying to steal from our fisheries.

So when you see those fancy TV advertisements about Mary Peltola, remember that when she was in office, she didn't pass a single piece of legislation and Dan Sullivan has been fighting for Alaska's fishermen every single day. But of all the praise I would give Dan, and I've given him a lot, there's nowhere where he's been more of a leader in the United States Congress, the United States Senate, than on ensuring energy independence and energy dominance, not just for the state, but for the whole country.

You have boundless natural resources in the state of Alaska, and for too long politicians told you that you couldn't have an amazing Alaskan environment while also exploring the incredible resources of this state. And Dan knows the exact opposite is true, that if we invest in Alaska's energy dominance, we can have proud Alaskan environment, but also make sure that America stays ahead of the curve when it comes to energy.

That's why he has fought tirelessly to open up ANWR and advanced drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve. And in doing so, he stood up for Alaskans like a, a person we're honored to have with us today, John Schneckenberger, a foreman and a welder with Flowline Alaska right here in Fairbanks. John, where are you?

Now, now, John, is that your wife Dulce right there? All right, we love Dulce. Now, John and his wife, Dulce, also a welder and a member of UA Local 375. Now, my papaw was also a union welder, so let's give it up for John and Dulce, a couple of union welders. We're proud of them. For workers like John and Dulce and all the other oil and natural gas workers across the state, the infrastructure projects happening right now in Alaska aren't some abstract debate in Washington.

They're a paycheck, they're a career, they're dignity, and they're the means to provide for your families. So when Washington bureaucrats and environmental bureau groups, when they delay these projects or when Alaskans don't have fighters standing up to them in Congress, it's people like John and Dulce and all of our great energy workers who suffer in the process.

We know that. But thanks to Dan Sullivan, thanks to Nick Begich, and thanks to President Donald J. Trump, Alaska is finally rebuilding energy again. And that's the promise of developing Alaska's resources. We got good jobs. We have an amazing environment. We got cheaper energy and we have a stronger economy.

We can have all of those things so long as we have smart decision-making in Washington, D.C. And today we're taking another major step towards making that promise of energy dominance a reality, which is why I am especially excited to announce the Alaska Railbelt Transmission Project, which is gonna devote $400 million to building out your state's power grid, and we got it because of Dan.

With it, with this project, ladies and gentlemen, the Trump administration will help develop more than 200 miles of new transmission line, lowering costs and strengthening grid reliability for 75 percent of the population of this state. It's amazing. But, of course, no talk about energy would be complete without talking about the incredibly important Alaska LNG project.

Now, I, I know about this project, and, of course, everybody in the Trump administration has known about this project for a very long time because Dan won't shut up about it. But what, but what he will tell you is that the Alaska LNG project is the single greatest priority for energy dominance in the United States of America, and we're building it right here.

And, and what the president of the United States has said is that you've got a ton of countries all over the world that are desperate for Alaska natural gas, desperate for Alaska energy. And so, we're making them a very simple proposal. You have easy access to that fuel, you have easy access to that energy, but you gotta help us build it. And if you're not gonna help us build it, then you're gonna pay a big fat tax for the energy that you're bringing into your state.

Bring it in from Alaska and we're gonna help you do that. You'll hear a lot of people say, "We've been talking about this project for 40 years and it hasn't gotten done." You'll hear a lot of people, I think, who have almost have a sense of learned helplessness. But ladies and gentlemen, Dan will never stop fighting for this project. President Donald J. Trump will never stop fighting for this project, and we are gonna get it done.

I promise you that. So, ladies and gentlemen, you have an amazing opportunity, and, obviously, I want Dan Sullivan to be a great fighter for the state of Alaska, just as he has been his entire time in the United States Senate. But I selfishly, I need him. We need him in Washington, D.C. We have so few good people in Washington, D.C. who show up and do their job and fight for their constituents.

So I'm asking you, in one short month, to keep Alaska's future bright and vote for my dear friend Dan Sullivan for the United States Senate. Now, b- -- before I close, ladies and gentlemen, let me just say this. You live, and I've only been here barely a day, but you live in a very, very special part of the country.

A- -- Alaska occupies a unique place in the imagination of the, uh, those of us who come from the Lower 48. We talk a lot about the United States of America being a frontier nation. It is built into our history. The memory of conquering the wilderness, of living alongside nature, of taming it, of pioneers raising cities out of nothing that's more recent for you all than it is for many of the ancestors, those of us in the Lower 48. In Alaska, it's not something you read about in the history books, it's not a memory, it is the very way of life in this incredible place.

It's the caribou crossing the North Slope. It's salmon running up Bristol Bay every summer. It's mountains that dwarf anything we've built and winters that can run far colder than it is today. [Laughter] But it's also what you don't see. It's the pride in the heart of every Alaskan child. It's the vast energy resources underneath this incredible mass of land.

It's enough to heat every home from Sitka to Nome. Most Americans have never been to this state. They only get to read about its beauty and its majesty. They only get to read about in books what it means to live beside the land and to make a living from it, but not you. You get to do both. That's an amazing and precious heritage.

And it's why you also need leaders who you have faith will fight, truly fight every single day to protect that heritage and to build on it. [Audience chants "JD"]

My, my friends, the Democrats are obsessed with this state this cycle. AOC and Kamala Harris and the rest of them, they see the Last Frontier as their last best hope to take America in a far-left direction to impeach Donald J. Trump, to turn off the energy projects that we're building all across this state, and to throttle this state and this country's incredible progress.

Now, we all know this: They are ruthless. They will do whatever they need to do right up to cheating and right up to lying, right up to putting somebody on the ballot who has no reason to be there other than to help them steal an election. So, ladies and gentlemen, I wanna end by asking Fairbanks, are we gonna stop them and fight for Alaska? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we ready to send Nick Begich back to the House? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we ready to send Dan Sullivan back to the Senate? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we ready to keep Alaska strong? [Audience responds affirmatively]

-- and free? [Audience responds affirmatively]

-- and safe? [Audience responds affirmatively]