JD Vance, Ohio Figures Give Rousing Middletown Speech on Manufacturing Investments

Vice President JD Vance spoke at a factory in Middletown, Ohio on Friday, his first appearance in his hometown since being elected to the nation’s second-highest office. In addition to sharing sentiments about his papaw working at that same factory, the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works steel plant, Vance spoke on what the Trump administration is doing for manufacturing.

The Cost of Not Investing

The announcement of $1 billion investment in Middletown Works from Cleveland Cliffs, thanks to a $500 million grant from the Trump administration, centered the day’s remarks. “Now, this is only possible because of my friend Chris Wright and the president’s energy dominance agenda,” Vance said about the secretary of energy.

Vance described factory workers being able to provide for their families as “the American Dream” when speaking of his papaw.

“My papaw hated the politicians who ignored this place. He hated the people who saw this as the place of the past,” Vance said. “He hated the people who forgot about this town when they should have been fighting for this town.”

Those at Fault

Vance recalled how, when he was growing up, people shared their fathers had lost their factory jobs because those factories were going overseas.

“Now, economists have measured the ways in which the opioid crisis exploded in the very locations where jobs were shipped overseas,” Vance shared, as he brought up open borders, which “brought the fentanyl trade,” and how “it left us with millions of orphan children being raised by grieved grandparents,” including his own.

Signs of Hope

“In November of 2024, you made a choice to reverse 40 years of American decline and make Donald Trump the president of the United States. And I’m not saying it’s going to be easy or it’s all going to happen overnight, but in just 18 months, we have seen an explosion of rebuilding in the American heartland,” Vance continued.

He went on to tout the successes of the Trump administration on manufacturing. “We’ve created more than 29,000 new jobs in the sector in 2026 so far, reversing years of decline in manufacturing employment. And year-over-year, manufacturing workers’ wages actually went up 4.2% where they went down under the Biden administration,” Vance explained.

Vance also insisted that companies hire American workers or otherwise face tariffs.

“For the first time in my life, America saw net migration out of the country as we sent millions of illegal immigrants back home.” Describing it as “maybe the thing I’m the most proud of in the last 18 months,” Vance brought up how the net job growth over that period “went to native-born Americans,” reversing a trend.

A Special Investment

The announcement of the $1 billion investment came from CEO of Cleveland Cliffs Lourenco Goncalves, as he reminded attendees that it was made possible thanks to the Department of Energy.

That $500 million grant was later addressed by Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson, as “one of the largest investments out of [her] office,” and “a vote of confidence in the American worker in the state of Ohio and in President Trump and Vice President’s Vance’s staunch belief that the future of heavy industry belongs right here on American soil.”

As he introduced the vice president, Wright referred to Vance as “the leader of the reindustrializing the United States of America.”

The Need to Do More

Ohio’s Republican senators shared how their families were both affected by the decline in manufacturing.

Sen. Bernie Moreno spoke of how his father-in-law was impacted, as he had lamented that it “totally screwed up the company” to ship jobs overseas.

He went on to call on Cleveland-Cliffs to strive to become the number one steel for auto producing in the world.

Sen. Jon Husted‘s father lost his job at the factory, the senator revealed, lashing out against people who “thought it was okay to send our jobs to China, get back cheap products in return and weaken basically export American manufacturing.”

Husted pivoted to a more hopeful message about America First, and the kind of place that Ohio has since become, which would be a theme of his remarks.

“We’ve added in this state 3,000 manufacturing jobs,” he said, as he recalled candidates claiming manufacturing was dead and jobs were gone, and the industry was not coming back. “They were wrong. We can bring back manufacturing to this great country in places like Middletown and across places across our great state,” Husted insisted.

Good News for Ohio

Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, had a heavy Ohio focus as he celebrated the “good news” of the investment. He thanked Goncalves “for believing in Ohio,” and “these great workers that you see here today.”

“We are red hot,” DeWine said about Ohio, speaking of improvements in doing business, lower unemployment, and filling jobs. The governor also spoke about how companies are leaving other states for Ohio, which involves recognizing “a long history of leading in manufacturing.”

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee who may replace the term-limited DeWine, also spoke. He addressed the need to “successfully fix what needs to be fixed,” which involves being “first grateful for what we’re actually getting right,” as he also touted the United States and Ohio and the humble beginnings of many speakers.

He also addressed making Ohio the state to envy.

Ramaswamy concluding by making a promise about “ensur[ing] that Middletown’s best days, that Ohio’s best days, and honest to God, through Ohio, America’s best days are actually still ahead of us.”