Speech: JD Vance Holds a Midterm Political Rally in Topeka, Kansas - October 26, 2026

[Audience chants "USA"] How are we doing, Topeka? It's great to be back in the great state of Kansas and, before we get started, I've got a few people I've got to say hello to and thank for being here. First, you already heard from him, he needs no introduction, but he is doing an amazing job, our Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum.

And of course, you know, you can always judge a man -- I know this personally, you can always judge a man by whether he married up. And I hate to say it, Doug, you married up, my friend. We're joined by his beautiful wife and the former First Lady of North Dakota. Thank you both for being here and supporting Roger Marshall.

You have got a few cans and Patriots, first of all, state GOP Chairwoman Danedri Herbert. Did I do OK on that pronunciation? All right, good. All right, I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. The speech is over, ladies and gentlemen. We have got former Governor Jeff Colyer. Jeff? My friend, the great attorney general, Kris Kobach.

Kris? And a couple of great Congressmen, Tracy Mann and Derek Schmidt. Now, of course, I've got a couple other candidates I really want to talk about, but before I do, I'd like to tell you why I am in America's heartland today. And I'll tell you why I'm here, because when I look out at a crowd like this, I see my home.

You know, driving through this beautiful Kansas heartland I thought to myself, I did not grow up in Kansas, but I grew up in a town very much like this one, filled with Americans who work hard, who say what they mean, who show up for each other and who do anything for their country when they are called. But I also know that places like this have felt, and in fact, have often been left behind by generations of failed leadership in Washington, DC. I suspect that, just like I felt when I was growing up, a lot of people around here, in places like Kansas, harbored many of the same doubts about our country's failed leadership.

And I saw it as a child, and I saw it as a young man.

[A protester interrupts the event]

[Audience chants "USA"] You know, the thing I've realized, having done these rallies for the last couple of weeks, is the only chance the Democrats have is to interrupt and shut down the debate. Because when we have a free and open debate, the American people will realize that all the Democrats are selling is a fat load of bullshit.

So, they can interrupt and they can scream and holler, and they can try to stop us from telling the truth. But the truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that America is being built back better than ever before and we're not stopping. Now, before I talk about the future, I want to talk about the past because I remember driving around with my grandfather, who was a union welder at a steel mill, and he could identify the cars that were made with American steel.

And I remember driving around with my Papaw, and he would beam with pride when he saw a car that was made with the work that he did. I remember playing peewee football in leagues where the kids of working-class black families joined together with the kids of working-class white families, never worried -- never worried about the color of our skin or our relative privilege but recognizing that we were all privileged to grow up in the United States of America.

Now, back then, and I imagine still today, our teams were sponsored -- [Audience boos]

[A protester interrupts the event]

[Audience chants "USA"] Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have another bullshit artist -- excuse my language for the kids. He's out of here. But I remember back then when -- and I assume this is still true today in peewee leagues all over the country, that our teams were sponsored by the local businesses. And so, when you go out there on Saturday for your game, the jersey that we wore bore the name of a place where you'd go for ice cream in town, or the place that provided a paycheck to your mom or dad.

And so, we remembered and had this personal connection when those businesses, when I was a kid, were closing down. We'd read in the paper about a factory that would soon move to Mexico or to Asia and then we'd find out that our friend's mom had lost a job, and then a few months after that, that their family had lost their house.

And I remember looking in my closet at those old football jerseys and realizing that the businesses that sponsored the team that I played on, the businesses that provided the color and the community that I grew up in, no longer existed. And I didn't realize this as a kid, but they were the casualties of politicians in faraway places who didn't seem to care what happened to Ohio or to Kansas, or to the rest of what people called the flyover states.

Now I remember 9-11. I remember the sense of pride we all had in our country, do you remember that, that sense of unity and purpose? And I remember the long wait in line at the local gas station for gasoline that had shot up in price because a region of the world made up of countries whose names I couldn't pronounce, had decided to do something terrible to our country.

And of course, as you all know, in the aftermath of 9-11, it wasn't mainly the politicians' children who went off to fight the wars, it was us. It was our kids, it was our grandkids, it was us who carried the burden of the United States of America and we were damn proud to carry it. In 2003, I will never forget 2003, two kids from my block back home graduated from high school, me and a buddy of mine named Nick, and both of us enlisted in the United States Marines.

And Semper Fi to all the Marines out there. And I remember when I went off to Iraq, and then I came home, I came home to labor strikes in my hometown, and the threat that even more of the factories my town relied on would be closed down and shipped to another country. And finally, I remember wondering why politicians seemed to care so little for the places that farmed our food, that created our steel, that built our cars, and that provided the troops to fight our wars.

And if we're being honest, ladies and gentlemen, the politicians that ignored places like Kansas and Ohio, it wasn't always just Democrats, it was often people with Rs next to their names as well. And if I think about what President Trump's movement represents more than any policy or more than any issue, it wasn't just about beating Democrats, as fun as that could be. [Laughter] But our movement was always about sovereignty.

It was about reminding the American people that their government belongs to them, and that the government ought to fight for Americans first. It was about returning control to you. It was about public servants fighting for you. It was about your government preserving the jobs, the communities and the families who grow our food, who fight our wars, who build the things that keep the United States moving.

That is the job of your government and never let the politicians in Washington forget about it. And for all my frustrations for the people in Washington and other places who ignored my home, I think it's important for us to take stock of just how much has changed over the last two years. Remember, for years we would watch politicians talk about tax cuts or tax increases.

And I've got to be honest with you; I watched it and none of it seemed to matter all that much to my community. Who cares about taxes when you don't even have a job? But even if I like the idea of paying less tax, and of course, all of us do, it always seems like empty promises from people who are telling us what we wanted to hear, rather than people who were going to go and get things done.

But under Donald Trump's leadership, ladies and gentlemen, we finally got real tax cuts, permanent tax cuts for working people in this country. And we couldn't have got it done, of course, without my dear friend and a great public servant for the state of Kansas, your current and next Senator, Roger Marshall.

Because of Roger Marshall, we cut taxes on overtime. Because of Roger Marshall we cut taxes on tips. And because of Roger Marshall, we cut taxes on Social Security. Thanks to Roger Marshall we took money away from the bureaucrats and the radicals, and we put it back in the hands of Kansas, which is where it belongs.

For too long, ladies and gentlemen, people like my grandmother and I imagine a lot of you, we paid sky high prices for medicine while European nations freeloaded off of the innovation created right here in the United States of America. And I happen to believe that a perfect example of sovereignty, of fighting for sovereignty, is when President Trump hauled the pharma companies into the Oval Office and demanded they treat Americans fairly or face the wrath of the whole federal government.

We cut down on visa fraud and cut down against any company that would lay off an American worker and then replace them with a low-wage foreigner, because sovereignty means American jobs go to American citizens. And sovereignty means, maybe most of all, that you control your streets and that every American child, whether they're rich or poor, whether they are black or white, should be able to walk to a park or walk to school without their parents worried about their safety.

And that is why President Trump and Roger Marshall closed the border on day one and went to war against the drug cartels and fought for law enforcement. We banned -- and this is something I'm very proud of, we banned Wall Street and foreign investors from buying up our homes, because sovereignty means that American homes and farmland ought to go to the American people for a change.

And we've ended the tyranny of DEI and racial discrimination -- Because we happen to believe that no individual and no person can be truly free when their government or their employer cares more about so-called white privilege than it does about promoting the American dream for everybody, regardless of their skin color.

Ladies and gentlemen, when we talk about fighting for sovereignty, when we talk about fighting for common sense, you have an opportunity here in Kansas to vote for two patriots who believe in real sovereignty and believe in the people of this state, men like Ty Masterson, who's running for governor. As your state Senate President, Ty abolished the sales tax on groceries and the state income tax on Social Security so our working families and our elderly could afford better lives.

That was because of Ty Masterson. And as governor, he'll deliver historic property tax relief, he'll fight for law and order, and he will protect your children from the predators in the far left. And in just one week, you're not just going to elect an amazing governor here in Kansas, you have the opportunity to reelect my dear friend Roger Marshall as your incredible United States Senator.

Now, I'm going to brag on Roger for a little while here, because I believe that Kansas has no better friend in Washington than Doc Marshall. Time after time, and I have seen it, ladies and gentlemen, this man has fought tooth and nail for your state's families, he's fought for your workers, and he's fought for every single citizen of this state.

Regardless of skin color or creed, Roger fights for Kansas because Roger loves Kansas and I know Kansas loves him. Of all the victories I've talked about, of everything from no taxes on tips to closing down the southern border, Roger has been right there with us, and it would be impossible to have done any of it without him.

He's a doctor, he's a businessman, he's a husband of 42 years, and he is a man of deep faith. But on top of all that, what makes Roger special is what he represents. This is not a man who's afraid to buck the establishment and stand up for everyday Kansans. And I'll never forget one of my favorite memories of my entire time in the United States Senate.

I had been there for just a few weeks when tragedy struck, and we had a terrible train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. You all remember that? It looked like a mushroom cloud going over a small Ohio town. It was a tragedy, but there was a silver lining in it, because I saw in that moment that there were people who would help me fight for the residents of East Palestine and there were people who would take a knee to the special interests.

Now, you know, East Palestine, even if you've never been there, it's full of people who love America, it's full of people who have fought in our wars. But it's a town just like this one, where America's leaders have taken it for granted in very profound ways. And in the aftermath of that derailment, I introduced legislation to protect the people of East Palestine and ensure that train accidents like that never happen again.

Now we got unbelievable pushback, not least from the people who are sometimes operating those trains, who didn't want to have to pay their fair share when they crashed a train in a small Ohio community. People who said it was not right to intervene in the railroad market and step up for our fellow citizens.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we didn't want to step into the railroad market, we wanted to fight for people who had their lives ruined and Doc Marshall was there fighting right along with me. My point is not that was in Ohio, this is obviously Kansas. My point is that you know a man by the friends and the enemies that he makes in times of crisis.

And ladies and gentlemen, I want you to judge, of course, Doc Marshall by his incredible voting record. He's got one of the best pro Kansas records you could ask for, for anybody in Washington. And I don't want you to just judge him by what he says, because of course, he's got great ideas and he says them very well.

I want you to judge him by what you couldn't possibly see but I do, by how he behaves and how he acts and how he fights when the cameras aren't on, and the special interests and the bureaucrats and the lobbyists get to work going to war against you. Whenever Roger Marshall is given a choice between the lobbyists and between the people of Kansas, I have seen it, he fights for Kansas every single time.

Now, I want to talk a little bit about somebody who fights for the workers and everyday people who sent him to Washington and who, even in the face of pressure from the big business and big government interests, he never blinks. Just look at Roger Marshall's record. Look not at just what he says, as important as that is, but you've got to look at these politicians' records, whether it's breaking up the credit card cartels to keep you from being unfairly charged at that checkout counter, or protecting the steelworkers and the truckers behind me from unfair foreign labor.

Or just or just last week, when Roger helped us unlock billions of dollars for fuel relief for farmers during this harvest season, Roger is always on your side. When others fold, Roger stands up. And he doesn't just talk a big game, he doesn't just fight for you, he does it successfully. Roger Marshall has delivered for the state of Kansas, and he's going to keep on doing it when we send him back to the United States Senate.

And here I want to tell you that under President Trump's leadership, and of course, thanks to Doc Marshall's advocacy, Kansans are seeing their taxes go down and their wages go up. They're seeing tens of billions of dollars in re-shored investment, along with thousands of the good paying jobs that go along with those investments.

That includes investments from great companies like Bombardier, which just last week announced it was bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars to expand its manufacturing footprint right here in the great state of Kansas. Now, I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we worked on that deal for a while. We could not have got it done -- I promise you this, we could not have got it done without the hard work of Roger Marshall.

And in that same spirit, I want to make another announcement today, something that also could not have happened without Doc Marshall. Today, the Department of Agriculture is announcing millions of dollars in new grants towards 10 meatpacking facilities right here in the state of Kansas. Look, for too long, ladies and gentlemen, and this is one of the reasons why food prices can sometimes get too high, four companies, two owned or -- two of them, by the way, completely controlled by foreign interests.

Four companies have dominated the vast majority of American meat processing and here's what they do -- they limit supply, and they jack up the prices that Americans see at the grocery store. You know what? President Donald Trump, myself and Roger Marshall say that's ridiculous and it's got to stop. So, what we wanted to do is we wanted to see choice and competition in meatpacking and, most importantly, we wanted to see more competition and make sure that we could drive down the cost of beef on American shelves.

So, with Roger's support, we are investing in American businesses and driving down the price for every American, regardless of their walk of life. That's what Roger Marshall's doing, and that's what the administration is doing. Now, I want to close by talking just briefly about the stakes of this midterm election, because next week's election, ladies and gentlemen, it's not just red team versus blue team, it's about whether we stand for a fighter who's always stood for the normal, everyday Americans who keep this country running, even when they're faced with an enormous amount of pressure.

Or whether, alternatively, we turn over Kansas's Senate seat -- this is your Senate seat -- do we turn it over to a career leftist who says you must repent for being white and eating meat? [Audience responds "No"]

Who refuses to call the police on predators targeting children at the summer camps he hosted. [Audience responds "No"]

A man who gives his church money to drag shows featuring fake nuns who mock Christianity. [Audience responds "No"]

Look, ladies and gentlemen, Adam Hamilton says that he's a pastor, and I don't know -- I can't possibly know what is in the man's heart. But I do know the law giver and Adam Hamilton's world, it isn't Moses's, it's not Jesus, it's Chuck Schumer. Because here's the deal -- if elected, Adam Hamilton would use our faith and your vote as Texas, or excuse me, as Kansas Senator, to launder a political ideology that despises the way that Kansas lives.

He is -- ladies and gentlemen, this man is a lab creation of Washington operatives and far-left activists who don't know a thing about you, or what you care about, or the values that you hold dear. Adam Hamilton would not be running, and he would not have a chance were it not for Chuck Schumer. He owes his political career to Chuck Schumer, which is why if Adam Hamilton gets to Washington, he's going to vote with Chuck Schumer 100 percent of the time.

So, let's stop Chuck Schumer and let's stop Adam Hamilton and let's elect Roger Marshall. Look, I may not know this great state well, but if there's one thing I think I know about Kansas, it's that Kansans don't like being told in Washington, DC, what to think or what to say or what to believe. I don't think Kansans like being told by Chuck Schumer that we ought to have men in women's sports. [Audience responds "No"]

I don't think Kansans like being told by Chuck Schumer that we ought to raise your taxes. [Audience responds "No"]

Do Kansans like being told by Chuck Schumer that America is a corrupt nation? [Audience responds "No"]

Then we've got to reject Chuck Schumer, and we're going to reject Chuck Schumer's stooge Adam Hamilton and elect Roger Marshall to the United States Senate. Ladies and gentlemen, we've done a lot in 18 months, a lot I'm proud of, but there's so much more we can do. With fighters like Roger Marshall, we can further cut your taxes, we can further tear down that DEI bureaucracy and racial hatred that has infected our classroom and our corporations.

We can build more; we can build more houses, we can get more factories off the ground, we can support more of the good jobs that support families and sustain our nation. And importantly, we can make more of our own energy to bring down costs and wean our country off foreign sellers thousands of miles away.

Now you will hear, and I want to speak mostly to the undecided voters. You'll hear a lot of people say that gas prices are too high, and I understand that, it is true. But it's also true that the price of gas goes up each time a foreign leader in the Middle East throws a tantrum. That's been true, think about it, since before I was even alive starting in the 1970s. But what's different about the Trump agenda and the Democrats is that the Democrats are making us more vulnerable to these people.

They talk about affordability, but they are the ones supporting the Green New Scam when the Biden administration shut down 20 percent of America's West coast refineries, leaving us more reliant than ever on tinpot dictators in the Middle East. But under Donald Trump, we just announced a major expansion in Texas of a refinery that is just one part of a multibillion-dollar effort to build more American energy and refine more American energy.

We're drilling more, and we're making energy development a core priority; we've done it for the past 18 months, and we're going to keep on working on it. With Doug Burgum and his great partner, Chris Wright, at the Department of Energy, we talk about energy dominance. But energy dominance is fundamentally about the kind of independence that leads us to rely on nobody but our own workers and our own land.

So, when I hear Democrats talking about high gas prices, I think it takes a certain amount of audacity for Democrats to say that they've done anything to make this country more energy resilient; they haven't. Their policies are the reason that these Middle Eastern dictators ever controlled our lives in the first place, and Donald Trump and Roger Marshall are stopping it every single day.

So, Kansas, I've got just a final few questions for you. In one week, are we going to tell the country that Kansas supports America First? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we going to support a candidate that is fighting for our faith instead of against it? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Are we going to support a candidate fighting for American sovereignty? [Audience responds affirmatively]

Ladies and gentlemen, on November the 3rd let your voice be heard. Let America, let Chuck Schumer, let the far left know that in Kansas we love the United States of America, we love Doc Marshall, and we're going to send him to Washington to fight for us. God bless you, Kansas. Thank you.