Many embrace historical visit of V.P. JD Vance in Plover, how it came to be

PLOVER, Wis. (WSAW) - An estimated crowd of 300 were on hand in Plover to see, and listen, Vice President JD Vance on Thursday.

The leadership at Pointe Precision would have never guessed they would be hosting the Vice President. Congressman Derrick Van Orden helped make it happen after a visit there recently.

“They were in for a tour about a week ago and they were impressed with what we were doing, founder Joe Kinsella said. ”And, so, he was going to relay that information on to someone higher up in government. Two weeks later my son got a call from the Vice President’s office.”

Kinsella says it’s a ‘pinch me’ moment to meet V.P. Vance and a good opportunity for the 165 employees who wanted to attend. Though many had to get back to work starting at 5:00.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for our employees. They worked hard all week with Secret Service in getting this thing set up,” Kinsella said.

Barb Newton of Rib Mountain was first in line at 5:30 this morning, about 4 hours before she got in.

“I just wanted to see JD. He’s awesome,” she said with a smile.

Vice President Vance spoke for about 45 minutes. Flanked by signage saying ‘lower prices bigger paychecks," he discussed affordability and housing.

“Apartment rents are down 4 months in a row. The annual cost of a new mortgage in just a year is down by $5,000,” he said.

But real estate agent Matt Tranel of Wisconsin Rapids says that’s not true here.

“The numbers I think he’s quoting are national numbers. I think locally we’re not seeing that yet,” said Tranel. “So, but there are bills at the state level that I know they’re working on to free up some more money, and some other things, to get some more building going.”

The financial health of rural hospitals in the state is dire. Many are facing closures because of Medicaid cuts. But, the state has received more than $200-million from the Trump Administration in the first of a 5-year plan.

“We said, look, we cannot let these rural hospitals just disappear,” the Vice President said. “So we created this fund to try to, you know, support the ones that can stay open and try to slow the closures for the ones that are going to have to close.”

Data centers continue to be a growing concern here in the state. The V.P. recognizes that, and reminded people of the President’s initiative to make data centers pay for their own electric grid. He added the data centers shouldn’t cross any wires with their communities.

“Those data centers are like the gasoline of the technology revolution we’re gonna see over the next 75 years. And I don’t know about you all, but I want America to win that technology revolution. I don’t want China or some other country to win it.And in the federal government we’re trying to do everything that we can so that if you build a data center, for example, you can just build a power plant right next door. We’ve got to make ssure they’re good neighbors so that when they come in and build these great buildings, the people in their neighborhood, the people in their community benefit, too. And that’s through lower power.”

Wednesday, the administration announced they’d be withholding federal money from Minnesota until they can eliminate fraud there. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has refused to hand over information related to SNAP benefits and voting.

“Well, look, we’re going to look at all the options we have because we’ve got to stop this terrible fraud. But, that is absurd. Now, the governor might say, in fact I’m sure the Governor would say this, let me just be charitable to those who disagree with us...the Governor would say, ‘well, there isn’t as much fraud as the Trump Administration believes there is. Well, even if that’s true-- and it’s not-- but even if that’s true, lets get what fraud there is off the voter rolls. And off the welfare rolls.”

It’s a big statement for central Wisconsin as the first stop following the state of the union.

“It says that the President and the Vice President of the United States understand that Wisconsin matters,” said congressman Derrick Van Orden. “And it’s not just a political thing. Look at what we do here. We do agriculture and we do manufacturing.”

While nothing new was really learned here at Pointe Precision Thursday afternoon, a lot of people were just here to witness history. Including an 8th grader who was allowed to skip school.

“Seeing JD Vance in person and being especially close to him. There’s not any other chance I’m going to be able to do that,” said an exxcited Preston Kugel, an 8th grade student at St. Paul Lutheran in Stevens Point.

Tranel added, “when’s the next time something like this is ever going to happen?”

In this swing state? Likely sooner than later.

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