Vice President J.D. Vance traveled to a Des Moines manufacturing plant on May 5, 2026, to rally support for Congressman Zach Nunn ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. In a wide-ranging speech, Vance framed the election as a fundamental choice between a government that fights for working Americans and a Democratic Party he described as captured by “fraud and illegal immigration.” He credited the administration’s tariff policy with saving Iowa manufacturing jobs, claimed rent has fallen for eight consecutive months, and revealed — with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins present — that a SNAP benefits audit uncovered 186,000 deceased recipients and 355,000 people receiving double payments. Vance also disclosed that Iowa has borne roughly half of all U.S. combat casualties in the ongoing Iran military operation, a striking disclosure he made after meeting Gold Star families on the tarmac upon arrival. He closed with an emotional tribute to military sacrifice, invoking the film Saving Private Ryan and his own six-year-old son, who accompanied him on the trip. Assistance from Claude AI.
Participants
| Name | Title / Role |
|---|---|
| J.D. Vance | Vice President of the United States |
| Zach Nunn | U.S. Representative, Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District (host/honoree) |
| Brooke Rollins | U.S. Secretary of Agriculture |
| Kim Reynolds | Governor of Iowa |
| Jeff Kaufmann | Chair, Iowa Republican Party |
| Brenna Bird | Iowa Attorney General |
| Paul Pate | Iowa Secretary of State |
| Randy Feenstra | U.S. Representative (Iowa) |
| Chris McGowan | Trump-endorsed congressional candidate (Iowa) |
| Joe Mitchell | Trump-endorsed congressional candidate (Iowa) |
| Amy Sinclair | Iowa Senate President |
| Ken Rozenboom | Iowa Senate President Pro Tem |
| Lynn Evans | Iowa state legislator |
| Cherielynn Westrich | Iowa state legislator (absent — illness) |
| Brooke Boden | Iowa state House member |
| Heather Hora | Iowa state House member |
| Bill Gustoff | Iowa state House member |
| Charley Thomson | Iowa state House member |
| Derek Wulf | Iowa state House member |
| Kevin Alons | Iowa state House member (absent — illness) |
| Steven Bradley | Iowa state House member |
| Mark Cisneros | Iowa state House member |
Note: This was a solo address by Vice President Vance. No press question-and-answer session was held.
Detailed Breakdown by Topic
1. The Stakes of the 2026 Midterms: “Who Does Government Fight For?”
Vance opened his substantive remarks by rejecting the idea that 2026 is a typical policy-debate election. He argued the real question is whether voters want representatives who fight for them or representatives who serve “corruption and fraud.”
“I’m 41 years old and for the first time in my entire life I think we have seen a major political party in the United States of America completely go off the rails.”
Vance pointed to the State of the Union address as a defining moment, saying every congressional Democrat refused to stand when President Trump asked Congress to affirm that the government should fight for American citizens over illegal immigrants. He singled out Congressman Nunn for standing, contrasting him with Democrats he described as prioritizing people in the country illegally.
He also made an appeal beyond the Republican base, saying “sensible Democrats” in Iowa — unlike in Washington — deserve the same fighter in Congress.
2. Tariffs and American Manufacturing: The China Argument
A significant portion of the speech was delivered from inside a manufacturing facility that Vance said was founded in 2009, in the middle of the financial crisis — a company he characterized as built through risk-taking, only to be threatened by Chinese competition.
Vance’s core argument on tariffs:
- China and other foreign countries were “dumping” goods into the U.S. market using cheap or slave labor, undercutting American wages and forcing factory closures.
- For decades, politicians of both parties allowed this to continue.
- The Trump administration reversed that by imposing tariffs on foreign goods while cutting taxes for American workers and businesses.
“If you’re a foreign country dumping that garbage into our country, if you’re trying to undercut the wages of Iowa workers… you’re going to pay a big fat tariff before you bring anything into our country.”
He described the Working Families Tax Cut — legislation he attributed to Congressman Nunn — as having allowed the factory’s owners to pay higher bonuses, raise salaries, and hire additional workers. He cited the factory owners directly, saying they told him just before the speech that the tax cuts had made a measurable difference in what they could offer employees.
Context: Tariffs have been one of the most contested elements of the Trump administration’s second term. Critics — including some business groups and economists — argue tariffs raise consumer prices and risk trade retaliation. Vance’s framing presents them as defensive measures protecting American labor from unfair foreign competition.
3. Housing Costs: Eight Months of Falling Rents
Vance flagged housing affordability — which he said young Americans cited as their top concern on the 2024 campaign trail — as an area where the administration has made measurable progress.
He claimed rent has declined for eight consecutive months for the first time in over five years, attributing this to:
- Cracking down on foreign investors buying U.S. homes
- Restricting Chinese investors from purchasing American farmland
- Reducing illegal immigration (his argument: fewer undocumented immigrants means more housing available for Americans)
“Why don’t you stop giving 30 million homes to illegal aliens? Why don’t you seal the border and make sure those homes go to American families for a change?”
Context: Vance’s claim that undocumented immigrants occupy or consume “30 million homes” is a significant rhetorical figure — the actual undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. is estimated at roughly 10–12 million people total. The claim appears to conflate immigration policy broadly with housing demand rather than citing a specific housing-impact study.
4. Federal Fraud Crackdown: SNAP Benefits, Dead Recipients, and Lamborghinis
Vance disclosed that he leads a White House fraud task force and receives weekly reports on findings. He described the scope of fraud as so widespread that it’s “like fishing in a barrel with dynamite.”
He highlighted Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins as a key contributor, citing two specific findings she shared:
- 355,000 people are currently receiving double SNAP (food stamp) benefits
- 186,000 deceased Americans are still receiving SNAP benefits
Vance acknowledged the political optics directly:
“I know the fake news media is going to say that the big headline from this speech is, J.D. Vance proposes that we take away food stamps. That’s what they’re going to say. I actually think that we should take food stamps away from dead people.”
He also claimed, based on a conversation with Rollins backstage, that some current SNAP recipients own Lamborghinis, framing the eligibility system as badly broken.
The Minneapolis autism services case: Vance devoted extended time to a specific fraud case in suburban Minneapolis involving a federal program that funds after-school services for children with autism. He said fraudsters — whom he described as members of the Somali immigrant community — falsely claimed children in their households had autism to collect federal payments, diverting money away from families who actually needed the services.
He said the administration responded by threatening to cut off federal funding to Minnesota unless it audited the program’s recipients. He added that the Department of Justice has already served 22 subpoenas as part of that investigation, accomplished in roughly three months.
“When we find crime, those people are going to go to prison for defrauding you.”
Context: The Minneapolis fraud case Vance referenced involves a real federal investigation into a program called Feeding Our Future, which became the subject of a major federal fraud prosecution beginning around 2022. However, the program in question involved child nutrition funding, not autism services specifically — Vance’s characterization conflates elements of what were separate programs. The SNAP dead-recipient figures he cited have not been independently verified in this speech context.
5. Iowa Agriculture: Doubled Export Markets and the E15 Fight
Vance told the crowd that the administration has doubled Iowa’s agricultural export market in 18 months by using tariff leverage to force foreign countries to open their markets to American farm products.
He described the strategy:
“We told all those countries, you’re done dumping that crap in the United States of America. And if you don’t want to pay a higher tariff rate, you better let Iowa farmers sell into your country.”
He said every targeted country has complied and opened their markets to Iowa products.
E15 fuel expansion: Vance expressed support for Iowa farmers who want to expand sales of E15 — a gasoline blend containing 15% ethanol, higher than the standard 10% blend. E15 is significant to Iowa because the state is the nation’s largest ethanol producer.
He noted that Congressman Nunn has active legislation on E15 and that the administration is working on it “every single day.” He drew crowd applause when he noticed a group of E15 advocates in the audience wearing E15 t-shirts.
Fertilizer costs: Vance acknowledged that farmers are struggling with high fertilizer prices. He attributed part of the problem to instability in the Middle East and referenced the U.S. military operation in Iran as something being “taken care of” on the foreign policy side, while saying the administration is simultaneously working with the Congressman to address input costs.
Context: E15 has historically faced regulatory hurdles around year-round sales due to EPA rules on summertime fuel volatility. Advocates argue year-round E15 approval would significantly boost the ethanol market. Multiple administrations have worked on expanding E15 availability.
6. Attack on Sarah Trone Garriott: Cultural Issues vs. Economic Priorities
In a section that drew audible booing from the crowd, Vance targeted Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic candidate challenging Zach Nunn in the 2026 race. (He initially forgot her name and had to ask Nunn off-microphone before delivering the attack.)
He contrasted Nunn’s legislative record with votes he attributed to Garriott:
| Nunn’s Record (per Vance) | Garriott’s Record (per Vance) |
|---|---|
| Working Families Tax Cut | Voted to allow biological males in girls’ sports starting at kindergarten |
| E15 market expansion | Voted against banning gender transition surgeries for minors |
| Fighting for lower housing costs | Voted against parental notification when students change pronouns at school |
Vance’s rhetorical approach was notably measured on the cultural issues themselves — he acknowledged that “not everybody agrees with us” on these questions — and focused instead on the argument that these votes reveal misplaced priorities.
“Even if you don’t think that’s crazy, why is that the priority of a woman who wants to represent you in Washington, D.C.? Why isn’t she working to increase your take home pay?”
He also claimed American families are $1,300 richer since Trump took office (from tax cuts, lower rent, and other factors combined), while the average family lost about $3,000 under the Biden administration — framing the election as a race to close that gap.
7. Democrats’ Departure from Working-Class Roots
In one of the speech’s more personal passages, Vance invoked his own family history — raised by “Mamo and Papo,” blue-collar union Democrats in Ohio — to argue that the Democratic Party has abandoned working people.
“Back when they were voting in the 80s and 90s… Mamo and Papo said, ‘We’re for Democrats because Democrats are for working people.’ And I don’t think that’s true anymore, my friends.”
He described it as “heartbreaking” for someone from a union Democrat background to see a party now more focused on gender issues than wages. He argued that while working-class Democrats like his grandparents still exist in Iowa, none remain in Washington.
He also briefly attacked Nancy Pelosi, calling her out for stock trading and describing her reaction at the State of the Union — when Trump criticized her publicly — as “the sourest look I have ever seen on a human being’s face.”
8. State of the Union Moment: The Six-Year-Old Shooting Survivor
Vance recalled a moment from the State of the Union address that he said crystallized the parties’ differences: a six-year-old girl who had been shot by an undocumented immigrant was present as a guest. He noted that Republicans stood and cheered when she hugged her father, while Democrats remained seated.
“What is wrong with you that you cannot stand up and cheer for a 6-year-old girl who survived an assassin’s bullet?”
He used this moment to reinforce his argument that Democrats prioritize undocumented immigrants over American crime victims.
9. Gold Star Families and the Iran Operation: A Striking Disclosure
One of the most newsworthy moments of the speech came near the end, in what appeared to be an unscripted personal reflection. Upon landing in Des Moines, Vance said he was met on the tarmac by Gold Star families — families of service members killed in action — including two families who had lost loved ones in roughly the past nine months, one in Iran and one in Syria.
Vance made a striking disclosure about Iowa’s casualty burden:
“In what’s going on in the Middle East, this Operation in Iran, Iowa has borne a heavier burden maybe than any other state in the Union. This great State has lost about half of our KIA.”
He did not name the operation or specify the total U.S. casualty count. One Gold Star family told him their fallen son’s birthday was that day.
Context: Vance’s reference to an “Operation in Iran” with significant U.S. combat deaths is a notable on-the-record disclosure from a sitting Vice President. The claim that Iowa has accounted for roughly half of U.S. killed-in-action in this operation — if accurate — would represent an extraordinary geographic concentration of losses and raises questions about which units have been deployed.
10. Closing Remarks: Military Sacrifice, Saving Private Ryan, and Earning It
Vance closed with an emotional tribute built around the tarmac encounter and his six-year-old son, who was with him during the trip (Vance had brought the boy because he’d felt left out when his younger sister went on a separate trip the previous week).
He invoked the climactic line from Saving Private Ryan — “Earn this” — as a framework for civic responsibility:
“All that love, all that was taken away from those families… we have to earn it.”
He argued that honoring military sacrifice means sending representatives to Washington who wake up every day fighting for constituents — not agreeing on every issue, but genuinely working on their behalf.
He closed by calling on the crowd to reelect Zach Nunn, framing it as part of making “this country worthy of that sacrifice.”
Citation
“Vice President J.D. Vance Delivers Remarks, Des Moines, Iowa.” Political Transcript Wire, VIQ Solutions Inc., 6 May 2026. ProQuest U.S. Newsstream, https://www.proquest.com/usnews/wire-feeds/vice-president-j-d-vance-delivers-remarksdes/docview/3337359695/