JD Vance visits Peoria as leaders encourage Republicans to vote early

Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance made a campaign stop in a heavily Republican part of the Valley today in an effort to boost GOP turnout ahead of the November presidential election.

Vance appeared alongside a handful of Arizona Republican Party candidates and officials in Peoria before a friendly crowd of about 400 supporters at a tactical gear manufacturer in Peoria that’s owned by Jason Beck, the city’s Republican mayor.

With early voting already underway in Arizona, the speakers each spent much of their time urging those in attendance to vote early. Vance also asked supporters to vote for former President Donald Trump “10 times,” clarifying that he wants them to bring their friends and families to the polls, not commit election fraud.

“The way to get out there and vote 10 times legally is to take yourself to the polls and take nine people along with you,” Vance said. “That is how we can vote 10 times the legal way.”

Many of the Republican leaders who spoke at the rally encouraged attendees to vote early — a marked change from 2020 and 2022, when Republican officials in Arizona like former state Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward criticized the mail-in and early voting processes.

“If you're in Maricopa, I've told you, and I beg of you again, vote early, because you're going to get jammed up,” current Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda said, referring to this year’s two-page ballot and well-documented ballot printer issues in Maricopa County 2022.

Vance said he prefers to vote on Election Day but acknowledged that early voting is a popular option, especially in Arizona.

“And if we're going to have early voting and mail in voting and Election Day voting, then we need to take advantage of every opportunity we have to vote,” Vance said.

While much of the rally focused on engaging the friendly crowd of Republican base voters, Vance also delivered a message he believes will resonate with the swing voters that could decide the presidential election in Arizona, a state Trump lost to President Joe Biden by less than 11,000 votes in 2020.

That message focused on common campaign talking points blaming Vice President Harris and the Biden Administration for inflation, the rising cost of living and the situation at the country’s southern border.

“I'd ask those swing voters, are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Vance said. “And I think for most of them, they would say no, because groceries are too high. Rent is too high. The border has been opened. Our public safety has gotten worse.”

He said a Trump-Vance administration would tackle inflation by cutting government spending and bringing high energy prices by increasing domestic production of oil and natural gas, even though domestic oil production actually hit a record high under Biden.

Beck, the Republican mayor of Peoria, said he believes Vance’s message will resonate with remaining undecided voters, especially as it relates to the economy.

“I think that when we actually talk about the citizen here in Arizona, we feel it. You feel it. We all feel it at home,” Beck said. “ I've got six sons, two of them have young families, and they feel it on a daily basis, both in food and gas prices and things like that.”