Vice President JD Vance sought to paint a rosy picture of the U.S. economy during a Friday speech in North Carolina, claiming that President Donald Trump’s administration’s policies are putting more money in the pocket of consumers — an assertion that comes as Americans are largely concerned about inflation.
“After the first year of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ leadership, we are rebuilding the American dream,” Vance told a group in Rocky Mount. “And we are taking back this country for the people of this state.”
Vance’s visit comes as four in five Americans say inflation is a “very big” concern and as few see the economy as thriving, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll, which was taken before the start of the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, found that Americans have negative views of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living. A majority of Americans hold Trump responsible for the economy, according to the poll.
Flanked by banners that said “lower prices, bigger paychecks,” Vance said Trump’s policies would lower taxes for working families and increase tax refunds. He also criticized former President Joe Biden’s policies, blaming them for high inflation. Many of his claims — including some about home sales and interest rates — weren’t supported by government data.
“Joe Biden put us in a big hole,” Vance said. “So to the Democrats who talk about affordability a lot of the time, why don’t you look yourselves in the mirror?”
The boosting of Trump’s economic policies and the bashing of Biden come as Republicans and Democrats spar over which party could better handle the economy. The topic has emerged as a central issue on the campaign trail as Republicans seek to retain majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.
That’s what made Rocky Mount a fitting backdrop for Vance’s speech. The city sits in the state’s 1st Congressional District, which was recently redrawn to more strongly favor a Republican in the November elections. It’s also 12 miles from Nashville, North Carolina, the hometown of Democrat Roy Cooper, a former two-term governor who is vying to fill the seat of outgoing U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican.
Laurie Buckhout, the Republican nominee for the 1st district race, spoke ahead of Vance, as did Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman who won the GOP nomination in the state’s U.S. Senate race.
Cooper has visited the district multiple times in recent months to speak against Trump’s tariff policies and to talk about his plans to combat inflation — while also seeking to paint Whatley, who has supported the president’s policies, as a rubber stamp for Trump.
On Friday, Whatley said the election would be “a choice between President Trump’s vision for America … or do we want to go back to the Democrat platform that we saw over the previous four years of open borders, inflationary spending and a woke, weak America?”
He added: “We do not want to go back to Roy Cooper’s North Carolina. We want jobs. We want economic growth. We want bigger paychecks. We want lower prices.”
Vance used much of his 30-plus-minute speech touting Buckhout and criticizing U.S. Rep. Don Davis, who was drawn out of the district when legislative Republicans crafted new congressional boundaries. The district now more strongly favors a Republican. Davis, a moderate Democrat who at times has voted with Republicans, won the district in years when Trump also won the district. Vance sought to paint Davis as more liberal than his voting record might suggest.
“Don Davis is not a man who stands for the people of this state or this district,” Vance said. “He is a person who does exactly what Nancy Pelosi tells him to do, and in November, we’re going to send him home and get him out of Washington, D.C.”
Madison Andrus, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, defended Davis and took aim at Vance, saying the vice president was in North Carolina to “lie to working families and attempt to sell them on a failing economy.”
“Don Davis has been in [the 1st Congressional District] all week delivering millions of dollars in federal funding for local emergency services, wastewater treatment upgrades, a new senior center and a new community center, and resources for local firefighters,” Andrus said. “Voters know the difference between results and empty talk.”
In a video on social media, Davis encouraged Vance to have an open dialogue with him.
“Let’s have a real conversation without the lights cameras and the attacks,” Davis said. “These are real issues impacting families — all of our families — and it’s so important for us to keep fighting for them.”
The Trump administration is facing additional pressure on the economy as fuel prices rise amid conflict in the Middle East. Asked if he expressed any concerns about the economic impact of the conflict to Trump, Vance said there’s a long-term benefit to the short-term pain of higher gas prices.
Since the U.S. and Israel began strikes against Iran last month, the average price of a gallon of gas is up 21%, according to Patrick De Haan with GasBuddy.
“What the president has said very clearly is that he does not like higher oil prices, and neither do I,” Vance said. “But he also believes that we’re going to make the American people safer, and that we’re to bring those prices at the pump back down to the levels they need to be for the American people.”
He then blamed high gas prices on Biden and said Trump’s actions would help the country become more energy-independent. “The gas prices we’re seeing today are nothing like what we saw at the peak of the Biden administration,” Vance said, “because the President has set us up for energy dominance.
Watch: VP JD Vance’s speech in Rocky Mount focuses on affordability and November election
FEMA funding
Vance also addressed federal funding for North Carolina disaster response and mitigation, which has dwindled in recent years. Millions of dollars previously approved by U.S. officials still haven’t materialized — a scenario that could put pressure on the state to pay for staffing and equipment to defend against or respond to natural disasters or terrorist threats.
He said the recent dismissal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could help move things along.
Noem had faced bipartisan criticism over her handling of FEMA operations tied to the storm; she had demanded all FEMA funding for Helene go through her office as part of an effort to reduce federal spending. She faced criticism from North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Josh Stein, and the state’s Republican U.S. senators for that approval policy and the low level of federal aid delivered to North Carolina.
“We have made this a priority,” Vance said Friday. “We are going to get the resources to the people of North Carolina that are necessary. We recognize that we needed the new leadership to hasten that delivery of resources to the people of North Carolina.”
Watch: Why did Vice President JD Vance choose to visit Rocky Mount?
‘Innocent Ukrainian girl’
Vance sought to paint Cooper as soft on crime, a common line of attack from Republicans as they seek to hold their Senate seat in North Carolina. Vance made reference to the August 2025 killing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte commuter train.
Republicans have sought to blame the death on Cooper’s policies. “The one Ukrainian [who] Roy Cooper didn’t care about was this innocent girl, Iryna, who had her throat slashed by a person who never should’ve been on the streets of this country to begin with,” Vance said.
He added: “Why does he [Cooper] care so much about the war in Ukraine 6,000 miles away, but doesn’t give a damn about an innocent Ukrainian girl who lost her life in our backyard because he wouldn’t do his job?”
A Cooper campaign spokesperson rebutted the statement, pointing to the former governor’s career in public office.
“Roy Cooper is the only candidate who spent his career prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars as attorney general, and signing tough on crime laws and stricter pretrial release bail policy as governor,” the Cooper spokesperson said.