JD Vance goes on attack against 'crazy' Democrats in Wisconsin visit

Vice President JD Vance visited Plover, Wisconsin, to support President Donald Trump's economic policies.

Vance urged voters to reelect U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden in the competitive Third Congressional District.

The visit is part of a White House effort to campaign in key battleground districts.

Vance also addressed local concerns, including rural hospital closures and the effect of tariffs on farmers.

PLOVER - In a visit to central Wisconsin, Vice President JD Vance implored voters to not give power back to the "crazy" Democrats.

Vance spoke at Pointe Precision in Plover on Feb. 26, two days following President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

The visit was part of a coordinated campaign by the White House to put the president and top administration officials in front of voters in battleground districts, in hopes of keeping the focus on economic policies.

"These people are kind of crazy, these congressional Democrats that we saw at the State of the Union," he said. "Do we want to give power back to the people who opened our border, who raised your taxes? ... I think our answer to that is hell no. We want to give power back to people like Derrick Van Orden."

The president endorsed Van Orden, a vocal supporter of his agenda, in the 2026 competition 10 months ago.

The visit to Wisconsin is one of the first domestic trips that Vance has made this year. In January, he visited Toledo, Ohio, and Minneapolis amid a standoff between state and local officials over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations.

In a sign of just how important Wisconsin's Third Congressional District is to keeping the GOP's narrow majority — Democrats only need to pick up a net three seats to take control of the House — it is Vance's second trip to the area this election cycle. He went to La Crosse in August to boost Trump's tax and spending law. The congressional district is rated a toss up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Trump won the congressional district that includes La Crosse and Eau Claire and runs along the western edge of the state by seven points.

Tom Tiffany touts Trump's State of the Union speech

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running unopposed as the Republican candidate for governor, spoke in the lead-up to Vance's arrival in Plover.

He celebrated Trump's State of the Union speech and made the case for his own election to continue the same agenda in the state.

"We need leadership that will defend our common sense values, restore accountability and unlock the full potential of this great state we call the Badger state," he said. "We're going to fight for your paychecks, we will fight to lower costs, and we will keep fighting for a bright future for Wisconsin and for America."

Among some of the issues highlighted in questions following Vance's speech were rural hospital closures and the impact tariffs have had on farmers across the state.

Vance said the Trump administration has been working to slow down or prevent hospital closures in places like Wisconsin through a rural hospital fund.

The fund, created in response to concerns about cuts to Medicaid in Trump's taxing and spending proposal, has awarded $203.7 million in Wisconsin. KFF, a health policy research organization, estimates the fund could offset about a third of the estimated cuts to federal Medicaid spending in rural areas.

"Look, we cannot let these rural hospitals disappear," he said. "So we created this fund to try to support the ones that can stay open and try to slow the closures for the ones that are going to have to close, and we think that we're starting to see good evidence for those."

As for farmers, Vance said the administration is trying to hold buyers of agricultural products, such as China, responsible for their impact on the market through tariffs.

"You ask how we're going to work with local farmers, especially in central Wisconsin, and the answer is just to listen," he said.

Van Orden also slammed Democrats in a speech for failing to vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill and the provisions it contained to support rural healthcare.

"Democrat colleagues say how much they care about rural American health care," he said. "That is a lie."

He said that he isn't worried about the challenge from Cooke, especially following the endorsements of the president and vice president, and that the focus Vance shed on central Wisconsin isn't a surprise.

"Wisconsin is a microcosm of what has to happen to make America great again," he said.

In response to Vance's visit to Van Orden's district, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said no amount of fanfare could distract from the negative impact on the district over the past year of the Trump administration.

"Western Wisconsin deserves better than Van Orden’s failed leadership and will fire him this November,” spokesperson Katie Smith said in a release.