In De Pere, JD Vance blasts elections commission for keeping RFK Jr. on ballot

Former President Donald Trump’s running mate blasted the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s decision to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the November presidential ballot after Kennedy dropped his independent campaign and endorsed Trump.

Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance said Wednesday the Trump campaign was “thrilled” to have Kennedy’s endorsement, prompting a loud cheer from a crowd of roughly 200 people gathered in a local warehouse in De Pere.

“It’s ridiculous that RFK has endorsed Donald Trump — he has petitioned to be taken off the Wisconsin ballot — but a bunch of bureaucrats are going to keep his name on the ballot because they think it will hurt Donald Trump,” Vance said. 

State law says a candidate who files nomination papers and qualifies to be on the ballot cannot decline the nomination, “except in the case of death.” The bipartisan Commission voted 5-1 to retain Kennedy, including votes from two of three Republican appointees.

Vance visited the Green Bay suburb the day before Trump is set to return to the state. The Ohio senator spoke about inflation, energy and the economy, and blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for what he believes were policy blunders of the Biden administration.

“A lot of Wisconsin paychecks are not keeping pace with the price of inflation,” Vance said, claiming immigrants undercut the wages of American workers.

“Kamala Harris opened the border, suspended deportations on Day One and stopped Donald Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy,” he added. “When Donald Trump is president, we’re going to reimplement deportations, reimplement remain in Mexico and tell people they got to go back where they came from.”

Trump has said on the campaign trail that he would lead the “largest deportation in American history” once reelected. Those comments have come as Wisconsin has seen its unemployment rate sit near record lows since 2022, and state data shows Wisconsin has had more job openings than people on unemployment since 2021. 

Vance did not directly answer a reporter’s question about whether a mass deportation effort runs the risk of worsening the state’s labor shortage.

“We don’t just want job openings,” he said. “We want good job openings that allow people to provide for a family. And when you import millions upon millions of illegal aliens, and you put them in the front of the line of American citizens, you destroy the economic foundation that allows the American people to get ahead in their own country.”

Vance and other Republican speakers claimed that a Kamala Harris presidency would lead to higher prices for Wisconsin consumers and businesses. 

Vance said Biden and Harris “destroyed the American energy industry,” after Harris supported a fracking ban in 2019 when she ran for president in a crowded Democratic field. Harris has changed her position on fracking in this campaign. 

“Donald Trump’s message and solution is simple: Drill, baby, drill. Open up America’s energy markets and get it from our own workers,” Vance said.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that the U.S. actually produced more barrels of oil per day in May, the most recent month with available data, than in any month under the Trump administration. 

The Harris-Walz campaign contended that Trump and Vance were the ones trying to raise prices through a tariff on all imports. The campaign also highlighted a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that said gas prices were the lowest they’ve been all summer.

“Under Trump’s watch, thousands of Wisconsin jobs were lost, and now he’s proposing cuts to support for farmers and a tax increase that could cost Wisconsin families nearly $4,000 a year. Wisconsinites can’t afford another Trump presidency,” Wisconsin Democratic Coordinated Campaign Rapid Response Director Kristi Johnston said in a statement.

Trump will be in La Crosse Thursday for a town hall. Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is set to be in Milwaukee on Labor Day.

An average of recent presidential polls from FiveThirtyEight showed Harris leading Trump in Wisconsin polls by 3.4 points as of Wednesday afternoon.