Vice President JD Vance visited Rocky Mount on Friday to promote the Trump administration’s economic agenda and energize Republican voters in eastern North Carolina.
The event, which drew several hundred attendees, highlighted national policy priorities while emphasizing the political importance of North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Speaking with the Carolina Journal, one NC-1 voter said the excitement surrounding the visit reflected how many in the crowd related to the vice president’s background.
“He’s one of us who made it out,” the voter said. “He’s here to represent the little guys and shine a light on so many of the problems in our community that are often overlooked.”
Vance, flanked by banners that read, “Lower prices, bigger paychecks,” centered his message on the administration’s economic policies. He said the administration is focused on lowering everyday costs; increasing wages; and encouraging economic growth through a combination of tax cuts, deregulation and efforts to expand domestic manufacturing.
Vance said President Donald Trump has pushed his administration to move aggressively to implement those policies.
“My friends, the president is impatient,” Vance said. “He is the most impatient person I have ever met. In fact, he is constantly pressing on the gas. He wants us to do more. But I stand here proud to say that after the first year of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ leadership, we are rebuilding the American dream and we are taking back this country for the people of this state.”
Vance contrasted those policies with what he characterized as the Democrats’ economic approach, saying that previous policies contributed to inflation and higher consumer prices.
“Joe Biden put us in a big hole,” Vance said. “So to the Democrats who talk about affordability a lot of the time, why don’t you look yourselves in the mirror?”
Much of the speech also focused on the political stakes in North Carolina. Vance criticized several prominent Democrats in the state, including US Rep. Don Davis, who currently represents the 1st Congressional District. He accused Davis of aligning with Democratic leadership in Washington and opposing policies that would benefit North Carolinians.
“Don Davis is not a man who stands for the people of this state or this district,” Vance said. “He is a person who does exactly what Nancy Pelosi tells him to do, and in November, we’re going to send him home and get him out of Washington, DC.”
Republican congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout, who is challenging Davis, also addressed the crowd before the vice president’s remarks, framing her campaign as a push to bring stronger leadership and accountability to eastern North Carolina.
Buckhout criticized what she described as decades of one-party control in the region, arguing that the district has seen little economic progress despite years of Democratic representation.
“For 143 years, we’ve had one-party control in this district, and still nothing has been done,” Buckhout said. “We’ve been told to wait, to be patient, that growth is coming. But the growth has never arrived.”
Buckhout said her background in the private sector shaped her perspective on leadership and accountability, contrasting it with what she called a “failed system” in Washington.
“I’ve spent my life in places where results matter,” she said. “You’re accountable for outcomes.”
Buckhout told Carolina Journal that Vance’s visit to the district highlighted national attention on the region and its challenges.
“The vice president’s background closely aligns with the lived experience of so many in the district. He understands our challenges, and he’s a great fighter for communities like ours.”
In a video posted to social media, Davis responded to the vice president’s comments, challenging him to a real “conversation.”
“Let’s have a real conversation without the lights, cameras and the attacks. These are real issues impacting families, all of our families, and it’s so important for us to keep fighting for them.”
Vance also took aim at former Gov. Roy Cooper, who is running for the US Senate. The vice president argued that Cooper and other Democratic leaders have supported soft-on-crime policies that he said have contributed to public safety failures in the state.
“The one Ukrainian Roy Cooper didn’t care about was this innocent girl, Iryna, who had her throat slashed by a person who never should’ve been on the streets of this country to begin with,” Vance said. “Why does he care so much about the war in Ukraine, 6,000 miles away, but doesn’t give a damn about an innocent Ukrainian girl who lost her life in our backyard because he wouldn’t do his job?”
Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and NC GOP, who recently won the GOP nomination in North Carolina’s US Senate race, also addressed the crowd ahead of the vice president’s remarks. Whatley framed the upcoming election as a choice between continuing the Trump administration’s policies or returning to what he described as the Democratic agenda of recent years.
“This election is a choice between President Trump’s vision for America… or do we want to go back to the Democrat platform that we saw over the previous four years of open borders, inflationary spending and a woke, weak America?” Whatley said.
He also criticized Cooper, the Democratic nominee in the Senate race, arguing that voters should reject what he called the state’s previous leadership.
“We do not want to go back to Roy Cooper’s North Carolina. We want jobs. We want economic growth. We want bigger paychecks. We want lower prices.”
Although the speech primarily focused on domestic policy and economic issues, Vance also briefly addressed the ongoing conflict involving Iran. The vice president defended the Trump administration’s military operation.
“You all know that right now we are engaged in a military operation to ensure, as the president has said repeatedly, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” Vance told the crowd. “That is a simple, simple principle and standard.”
Vance also acknowledged the risks faced by US service members deployed overseas and asked attendees to keep them in their prayers. “There are a lot of people from the state of North Carolina who are in harm’s way right now,” he said.
The visit was part of a broader effort by the administration and national Republican leaders to campaign in competitive congressional districts ahead of the midterm elections. NC-1, which covers much of the state’s northeastern region and includes Rocky Mount, has historically leaned Democratic but has drifted closer and closer to a tossup in recent cycles. The district now leans Republican following recent redistricting.
Republicans believe the district could be competitive in upcoming elections, while Democrats are working to defend the seat currently held by Davis.
In response to the vice president’s trip, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released the following statement:
“Just like a good lackey, J.D. Vance is dutifully traveling to North Carolina to lie to working families and attempt to sell them on a failing economy. North Carolinians are seeing higher gas prices, higher costs at the grocery store and higher health care premiums all because of Republicans’ disastrous agenda. While Vance parachutes in to lie, Don Davis has been in NC-01 all week delivering millions of dollars in federal funding.”
The Rocky Mount stop reflects growing national political attention on eastern North Carolina as both parties ramp up their efforts ahead of the 2026 midterms. With control of Congress potentially at stake, visits like these are expected to become more common in NC-1.