Vance, in Henderson rally, says Harris called the shots on ‘failures’ of Biden era

Boos rained throughout the Liberty High School gymnasium Tuesday afternoon while Sen. JD Vance addressed a partisan crowd in Henderson on his first campaign visit to Nevada as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

But the boos weren’t aimed at former President Donald Trump’s running mate.

Instead, they were bellowed whenever Vance mentioned Trump’s apparent opponent on the November ballot, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Vance said Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, had been the decision maker responsible for the bulk of “failures” of the Biden-Harris administration. Those failures, Vance said, include the southern border crisis and the state of the nation’s economy.

“Kamala Harris owns every failure of the Biden administration over the last four years. (President Joe Biden) didn’t know what was going on, so somebody was calling the shots and we know it was Kamala Harris,” Vance said, questioning Biden’s mental acuity.

Vance came under fire this week when comments he previously made resurfaced in which he labeled Harris as “one of a bunch of childless cat ladies” who lived “miserable lives” and were forcing their misery on the rest of the country, even though they had no “direct stake” in the country’s future without biological offspring.

It was one of several missteps by Vance since Trump tabbed him as his running mate earlier this month in Milwaukee. Those missteps have led to some speculation nationally about the wisdom of putting the first-term Ohio senator on the Republican ticket.

But he clearly won over the Henderson audience, despite repeatedly mispronouncing Nevada, calling it “Ne-VAH-duh.”

“You guys are fired up,” he said after the crowd showed its approval. “What do they put in the water in Las Vegas?” During another part of the event, attendees serenaded Vance, who turns 40 on Friday, with “Happy Birthday.”

With inflation still nagging the nation’s economy, Vance vowed, “We are going to bring prosperity back to the American people and it’s starting in Nevada.”

He failed to mention the 2023 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law championed by the Biden-Harris administration and supported by some congressional Republicans that injected billions in investment into communities across the country, including $3.5 billion in funding for 275 projects in Nevada as of March 2024, according to the White House.

Vance reiterated Trump’s “no tax on tips proposal,” which the former president initially floated at a rally earlier this summer at Sunset Park. The campaign, however, isn’t mentioning that bipartisan legislation on the proposal has already been introduced in the U.S. Senate and is supported, in part, by Nevada Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats.

The rally also featured Sam Brown, the Republican who is trying to unseat Rosen this fall.

While Vance was the rally’s headliner, Brown drew equally enthusiastic responses from attendees, who filled about half of the gym.

“We talk about loyalty, somebody who has sacrificed more for this country than anyone that I know and the next senator from the state of Nevada — Sam Brown,” Vance said of the retired U.S. Army captain who suffered burns to 30% of his body, including his face, while serving in the late 2000s in Afghanistan.

Vance later flew to Reno for another campaign event, hoping to reverse the GOP’s fortunes in the Silver State, where the statewide vote in every presidential election since Barack Obama in 2008 has gone for the Democratic nominee. In 2020, Trump lost Nevada by about 30,000 votes to Biden.

The Nevada Democratic Party used Tuesday’s rallies to remind voters about the GOP ticket’s stance on women’s issues, including reproductive rights.

“All Nevadans deserve respect, no matter their family planning decisions or challenges, but MAGA extremists like Sam Brown and JD Vance have made it clear their respect for women is conditional,” said Katharine Kurz, a spokesperson for the Nevada State Democratic Party ahead of Vance’s visit. “Their extreme agenda of banning abortion and attacking women and their families is offensive, wrong, and deeply out of step with our state.”

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., had a similar take Monday during a women’s reproductive rights event in Las Vegas, saying, “I’m one of those miserable, old cat ladies with no children. And I’m here to tell JD Vance: Keep your hands off our kitties.”

Attendees at the Henderson rally had a different take.

Vance has previously said his childhood featured poverty and an abusive mother with a drug addiction. Yet, he was able to overcome it, graduate from Yale and win a spot in the U.S. Senate.

“He’s experienced it. He’s not a silver spoon or golden spoon guy. He’s been at the bottom and he knows what it is,” said Leeor Engelstein, a Henderson resident who was at the Henderson rally.

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