John James

HOWELL, Mich. — Vice President JD Vance traveled to Howell Tuesday to rally Republican support ahead of the November election, urging voters to back GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers and gubernatorial candidate John James.

“Michigan belongs to those who love it, not those who hate it,” Vance said during the rally.

Vance also pushed back against Democratic criticism that Rogers would give President Donald Trump a blank check if elected to the Senate, arguing that Rogers has demonstrated independence from the administration.

“What Mike has done in this campaign, sometimes he has said things that have been independent of the administration,” Vance said.

Rogers used much of his remarks to criticize his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, describing him as an extreme candidate with ties to the Democratic Socialists of America.

“I am running against the most radical, most extreme DSA-tied candidate in the country,” Rogers said.

John James, who is facing Democrat Jocelyn Benson in the race to become Michigan’s next governor, framed the election in stark terms.

“This will be a test of common sense versus crazy, and common sense will prevail,” James said.

Republican voter Lynda Nixon also spoke at the rally, emphasizing what she sees as the stakes in this election.

“We have to stand up for our rights,” Nixon said. “We have to stand up for what’s going on in the world because if we don’t, we’re going to lose it.”

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel was quick to respond to Vance’s visit, criticizing the administration’s economic policies and the Republicans who support them.

“Today, JD Vance came back to Michigan to brag about the very policies that have driven up costs and left Michigan families worse off,” Hertel said in a statement.

Hertel called out Rogers, James, Tom Barrett and other Michigan Republicans, accusing them of backing what he described as the Trump-Vance administration’s “corrupt, cost-raising agenda.” He cited tariffs, the war in Iran, and health care cuts as specific examples.

“Michiganders are fed up with the higher costs and rampant corruption fueled by this administration, and a week from now, they will reject Trump and the Michigan Republicans who enabled him at the ballot box,” Hertel said.

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Will Jones returned to Local 4 in February 2023 as a weekend evening anchor and weekday reporter, after previously working at the station as a general assignment reporter from 2012 to 2015.

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