DALLAS – Delegates from key battleground states serenaded Vice President JD Vance with chants of “48” during a closed-door breakfast Thursday in Dallas, according to four people in the room.
Vance, continuing a theme that President Donald Trump laid out Wednesday, told the attendees that 2026 presented a stark choice between common sense Republicans and the “crazy people” on the left, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door event.
Vance, in remarks ahead of his major convention address Thursday night, warned the room that if Democrats take back Congress, they would undo all the tax cuts and economic achievements Republicans have made if they win in November. In attendance were GOP lawmakers, state party officials and convention attendees from his home state of Ohio as well as from Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“We’ve got to nationalize this election, we’ve got to talk about all the crazy things Democrats are doing,” Vance said, according to audio obtained by POLITICO, warning that Democrats winning would “bury the American people in investigations and bullshit for the next two years.”
Vance, who if elected would be the 48th president of the United States, received a warm reception and the 2028 buzz was clearly on Republican lawmakers’ and attendees’ minds, though the Vice President never mentioned the race or his future plans. He also touted a string of GOP achievements for working class Americans.
Earlier in the event, where Vance was the featured guest, House GOP Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in his remarks that “the stars are the limit for the vice president.”
Vance placed a major focus on Trump’s executive actions that aim to lower prescription drug prices, describing the policy as “the single issue that has the most broad popular appeal.”
Top Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio has told GOP lawmakers and Trump officials in a series of private briefings in the last year that efforts to cut prescription drug prices are highly popular with voters and Republicans need to focus more on those efforts as they try to blunt attacks from Democrats over health care. Trump decided to take solo action to cut most favored nations agreements with key drug manufacturers, after GOP leaders on the Hill balked at the idea given it’s a highly divisive and long-running issue for more traditional Republicans.
Vance, notably, did not mention Trump’s promise during his GOP convention speech Wednesday night of a $5,000 dividend for every American adult — if Republicans win the House and Senate in November. However, Vance did defend the offer on Fox News Wednesday night following Trump’s speech, and suggested it could have income limits.
The vice president’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on his remarks.
Vance is also set to join the Charlie Kirk show on Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s killing.
The vice president was greeted in the arena on Wednesday with cheers and waves from the crowd, as he took his seat next to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just before Trump made his entrance at the convention.
Vance’s major speech on Thursday night follows the nearly two hour keynote from Trump, which hit all the key MAGA issues from cracking down on border crossings to banning transgender men from women’s shorts.
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