U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) speaks at a Moms for America town hall Oct. 15, 2024 in Montgomery County (Photo by Christina Kristofic for the Capital-Star)
After weeks of talking about child-free women on the campaign trail, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) the GOP nominee for vice president, spoke to a group of conservative mothers at a town hall meeting in Montgomery County on Tuesday.
He told the 200-plus people who gathered at Union League Liberty Hill in Lafayette Hill that a vote for him and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump would be a vote for better grocery prices, better schools and better public safety. And he asked them to spread the word.
“Moms are the best ambassadors to say, ‘Look, don’t believe the lies that you’ve heard about these guys,’” he said.
The meeting was organized by Moms for America, a conservative advocacy organization founded in 2004 in Vance’s home state. The organization says on its website that its mission is “to empower moms, promote liberty, and raise patriots to heal America from the inside out.”
The organization is not to be confused with Moms for Liberty, which was founded in 2021. Though the two organizations share similar hard right values and have collaborated on events, Moms for America has broader aims than Moms for Liberty, according to its leadership.
“Moms for Liberty is very school board-centric,” said Maria Wagner, executive support manager for Moms for America. “That’s one of our initiatives, but we have many others.”
Wagner said Moms for America develops educational materials and holds webinars about topics it believes moms are concerned about, such as cyber safety, human trafficking and “transgenderism.” . The organization also has a lobbying arm called Moms for America Action that grades members of Congress on how they vote on the subjects that they claim matter to mothers, endorses candidates, and organizes town hall meetings like the one held Tuesday night.
A Ben Franklin impersonator warms up the crowd as they await the arrival of Sen. J.D. Vance at a Moms for America town hall Oct. 15, 2024 in Montgomery County (Photo by Christina Kristofic for the Capital-Star)
“This is a really important night,” said Moms for America founder, president and CEO Kimberly Fletcher.
“The vast majority of conservative women of faith are not voting. Most aren’t even registered to vote. And thousands of moms in Hispanic and Black communities are voting against their values every election and not even realizing it.”
The Democratic National Committee condemned Vance’s appearance at Tuesday’s event, calling Moms for America an “extremist group that sponsored a Jan. 6 rally.” DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said in a statement: “This kind of dangerous pandering to far-right extremists may appeal to a wannabe authoritarian like Trump who is threatening to use the military against the American people, but it’s a slap in the face to voters who have had enough of the Trump-Vance ticket’s reckless attempts to undermine our democracy and disrespect the rule of law.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign called Moms for America an “anti-choice” group.
“Trump and Vance’s Project 2025 agenda would be a disaster for Pennsylvanian women, from banning abortion nationwide – including in Pennsylvania – to threatening access to IVF and contraception,” Harris campaign spokesperson Onotse Omoyeni said in a written statement. “There’s only one way to stop him: make our voices heard at the ballot box and rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris, who will protect our freedoms, lower costs and be a president for every American.”
Vance’s appearance at the town hall meeting – arriving two hours late – was the Trump campaign’s second town hall meeting in the wealthy suburban Philadelphia county in as many days. Trump held a town hall meeting Monday in Oaks, which was cut short after two attendees fainted. Trump closed out the event by playing music and dancing on stage for about 30 minutes.
Both major parties’ presidential campaigns see the suburbs – and especially suburban women – as holding the keys to victory. Suburban women helped Trump win the presidential election in 2016, and led the charge against him in 2020.
The campaigns have spent a lot of time in the Philadelphia suburbs in the past few days. While Trump and Vance focused on Montgomery County, Democrat Kamala Harris’ campaign is set to visit three of the suburban counties before the end of the week.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, accompanied by a small entourage of celebrities, spoke to Jewish voters in Montgomery County and girl dads in Delaware County on Sunday. Gwen Walz, wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, spoke to voters in Delaware County on Monday. First Lady Jill Biden campaigned for Harris in Montgomery County on Tuesday. And Harris is scheduled to visit rural Bucks County on Wednesday.
A national KFF poll showed that suburban women voters are most concerned about inflation, threats to democracy and abortion access. A more localized Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll of Pennsylvania voters added immigration to the list. Vance spoke about only two of those topics on Tuesday: inflation and immigration.
“The best thing we can do to lower prices is elect Donald J. Trump,” Vance said.
Trump has promised that “inflation will vanish completely” if he’s elected. Most economists disagree, and 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists recently signed a letter expressing fear that Trump’s economic policies could make inflation worse.
Vance said most people don’t “appreciate how energy prices go into everything else.” He said farmers and manufacturers have to charge more for their goods if they have to spend more on gas to transport them.
So the most important thing the government can do to curb inflation, Vance said, is “drill, baby, drill.”
He also said the government has to “stop spending trillions and trillions of dollars it doesn’t have” because doing so “makes the dollars in our pockets mean less.”
Vance said the government specifically needs to change how it spends money on education and immigration.
He claimed “curriculum money is going into radical gender ideas instead of drug prevention.” There is no evidence of that.
He also said the government needs to continue building the wall along the Mexican border so it can focus its efforts on helping immigrants become citizens legally instead of policing immigrants who are here without proper documentation.
Vance has said before that the government needs to make more efforts to deport immigrants who are violent criminals. He said on Tuesday the government also needs to strengthen its efforts to arrest and imprison citizens who are violent criminals. To do so, he said, the government needs to provide more pay and better benefits to law enforcement officers.