U.S. Sen. and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance is campaigning in North Carolina this week. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance sought to connect with younger voters during a town hall in High Point on Thursday.
Hosted by Charlie Kirk, the controversial media figure and founder and president of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, the U.S. senator from Ohio answered questions from students at High Point University — a private, United Methodist Church affiliated school — about the economy, crime, and foreign policy.
It’s one of Vance’s last appearances in North Carolina before Election Day. He’s scheduled to hold a rally in Selma on Friday.
“Younger voters, in some ways, have the most to lose or the most to gain from getting this election either right or wrong,” Vance told Kirk.
One student asked how the Trump-Vance administration would improve the economy for people in their young 20s like herself.
Vance began by mocking Vice President Kamala Harris: “I want to start out by saying I grew up in a working-class family — I’m kidding, kidding,” to which the audience laughed and clapped.
He said the Trump administration would change the tax code and implement tariffs on certain foreign goods, as well as “drill, baby, drill [for fossil fuels],” which Vance called the “fundamental principle” of former President Donald Trump’s economic policy.
“If you’re going to encourage investment in the United States of America, you’ve got to penalize the companies who choose to make their things in China,” he said.
Nobel economists and researchers have noted that Trump’s economic proposals would actually worsen inflation.
The Republican defended reimplementing deportation for immigrants without permanent legal status.
He told a student that he hoped they’d stay in North Carolina or move to Ohio rather than going to New York City after graduation, citing concerns about personal safety.
“I’d be very worried about moving to some of these one-party states and one-party cities, because if you look at the levels of violent crime, especially assaults, muggings, things like that, they’re moving in the wrong direction,” he said.
A February report from NPR based on FBI statistics found violent crime was dropping across the country.
On the foreign policy front, Vance warned students about a third world war — one where they would be drafted and called upon to fight.
He attacked Harris over her relationships with foreign leaders while defending Trump’s.
“I do not want you guys to have to put on a uniform, not because you’re patriotic and volunteer, but because your country forces you to because Kamala Harris has blundered us into another significant conflict,” he said.
With little detail, Trump also claimed in Rocky Mount this week that he alone could prevent World War III.
“Don’t reward the party of Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney and Kamala Harris, reward the party of Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk and Donald J. Trump,” Vance told the audience of young voters Thursday.
In explaining the congressional budgeting process, Vance said, “I’ve been in the Senate for a couple years.”
Elected in 2022, he took office in January 2023. Trump selected Vance as his running mate on July 15 of this year, and he’s been on the campaign trail since then.
None of the legislation on which Vance has been a sponsor or co-sponsor has become law, according to an analysis by Spectrum News.
In the last few days of the race, presidential candidates are making their final trips to North Carolina.
On the Democratic side, Harris ignited enthusiasm in Raleigh as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made campaign stops in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Asheville on Wednesday.
Trump will return to the Tar Heel State on Saturday with stops in Gastonia and Greensboro while Harris appears in Charlotte.