LIMA — With a political backdrop of U.S. strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites, immigration crackdown and an ongoing—and contentious—spending bill debate on Capitol Hill, Vice President JD Vance spoke to a sold-out crowd of Ohio Republicans on Tuesday in Allen County.
The vice president’s visit to Northwest Ohio was the center of the GOP Dinner event put on by the Ohio Republican Party, where attendees were served dinner and speeches from prominent state Republicans, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose (now running for auditor) and treasurer Robert Sprague (running to replace LaRose).
Vance began his opening remarks with anecdotes about his time in the White House thus far, while also lauding what he views as the administration’s successes.
On tariffs, Vance told the crowd, “On April the 2nd, he [President Donald Trump] said, ‘If you try to undercut the wages of American workers, if you try to bring in this crap, if you try to expose the American worker to an economic unfairness – that you don’t force your own countries to deal with – we are gonna slap a big, fat tariff on what you bring into this country.’”
He was referring to the “Liberation Day” tariffs that caused a steep drop across markets and sent bond yields up as a “penalty” on other nations that “has saved the American economy.”
Vance also received applause from the crowd when discussing a drop in illegal crossings at the southern border, an issue he and Trump campaigned on.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s three-term Democrat, lost his reelection to Republican Bernie Moreno in November. It put an end to a tradition of the state electing a Democrat and Republican to serve concurrently in the chamber.
“Sherrod Brown was a tough candidate; he always did better than national Democrats … the president was skeptical that anybody could beat Sherrod Brown.”
Vice President JD Vance
The vice president believes Brown’s loss in November was part of a larger political shift in the state.
“While we had a reputation for a very long time as a ‘purple’ state or even a ‘blue’ state, thanks to the hard work of people—many of whom are in this room—I think Ohio is now solidly ‘red’ and is gonna stay ‘red’ for a very long time.”
The issues
Tariffs: Ohio Republican Party chair Alex Triantafilou, in an interview with the Toledo Free Press, took an optimistic tone on the pressing policy issues of the second Trump administration.
In Northwest Ohio, a region in which agriculture is big business, tariffs are certainly a policy concern. When asked about his message to farmers, he stated, “Wait and see: This president has a plan. He’s working that plan. The plan here is to work better trade deals that help people in Northwest Ohio, help farmers, help our workers here in Ohio.
“With these tariffs, people just need to be patient. Let the president work his magic, and this is gonna work out for working class people in this state and every other state in America.”
But when it comes to one’s bottom line, patience doesn’t come naturally. When asked about a timeline as to when those promised results will become tangible, he answered that he “would argue that we haven’t seen the widespread inflation everybody threatened. We haven’t seen those things happen yet. I think what you’re gonna see is a president focused on helping them. I think once this bill passes, that’s pending, Americans are gonna get tax relief; you’re gonna see an explosion in the economy—you’re already seeing the economy begin to hop into overdrive,” he opined.
However, government data shows the economy did the opposite in the first quarter of this year, contracting by 0.3 percent. There was a notable increase in imports, which economists cite as the result of businesses front-loading ahead of tariffs.
The Middle East: Asked about the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, which have created concern about another war in the Middle East, Triantafilou responded that “they [those concerned] should listen carefully to what the vice president and the president have said, and that is: We’re not at war with Iran.”
He added, “We’re not at war with the Iranian people. The goal here is limited … and that is to keep Iran from achieving nuclear weapons.”
Triantafilou asserts that the “consistent message” has been that this isn’t a repeat of what the general public has seen with Middle East policy. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on the Sunday following the strikes that “this mission was not and has not been about regime change.”
However, the president floated the idea on his Truth Social platform that same day, when he posted, in part, that “if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???”
In context: 2026
While priorities on the national level can change from day-to-day, those seeking elected office next year have to be in it for the long haul. Coinciding with this event is the run-up to next year’s midterm elections, in which three Republicans are vying to unseat Rep. Marcy Kaptur.
Included in that group: Air Force veteran Alea Nadeem, Sylvania-area State Rep. Joshua Williams, and former state representative and Waterville Mayor Derek Merrin (who ran against Kaptur in 2024).
There’s also the race for governor, in which Republican Vivek Ramaswamy—who was to co-lead the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—has been handed the state party’s nomination. He faces opposition from the lone Democrat in the race, Dr. Amy Acton, former director of the Ohio Department of Health.
On his level of confidence, in the face of these big races ahead, Triantafilou said, “I think the president is popular here in Ohio. We have a strong nominee for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, so we feel very good about where we are in this country.”
Events, such as Tuesday’s with the vice president, don’t just play a role in fundraising. They have an underlying purpose: turning what party officials, such as Triantafilou, say is enthusiasm, into turnout by their registered voters.
Outside the event venue at Lima’s Veteran’s Memorial Civic & Convention Center, protestors held signs opposing Vance’s visit. They read “Stop pretending your racism is patriotism;” “This presidency has been anything but peaceful;” and “No sign is big enough for all the reasons we’re here.”
Speaking to the Toledo Free Press, protest lead marshal Seb Baughn said the Allen County Democratic Party led the charge in organizing it. Baughn works with the Ohio 50501 protest movement out of Columbus.
Asked what the group’s message was for Vance and those who came to hear him speak, Baughn said, “We’re trying to express our dissent for the way they’re treating people, like immigrants, LGBTQ people, people of color—they’re all being oppressed against.”
Baughn said that while some Republicans believe Democrats to be indifferent to the issue of illegal immigration, the reality is they just want due process before someone is deported.
“We want everyone to go to their court date, we want them to be allowed to speak to a judge, and enjoy their freedoms—like a lawyer—because they’re on U.S. soil, as the Constitution states,” he said.
