Vance heads to Rust Belt city to kick off administration's megalaw messaging effort

Yahoo

2 days ago

The White House's effort to sell its signature legislation to America begins in full on Wednesday with Vice President JD Vance headed to northeastern Pennsylvania to tout the law's tax cuts and other economic benefits.
It's the start of what is expected to be a sustained defense of the contentious legislation ahead of the fast-approaching midterms in which Democrats are eager to weaponize the law's least popular provisions to tarnish Republicans.
The rally, the White House's first major event highlighting the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' since Trump signed it on Independence Day, will be held at a manufacturing facility in West Pittston — a Rust Belt city that ousted its longtime Democratic congressman and helped deliver the commonwealth for Trump last year.
It's what a White House official described as the 'tip of the spear' in the administration's efforts to highlight the politically popular pieces of the 'OBBB.' The official, granted anonymity to describe internal strategy, said the White House is working on plans to deploy many messengers — including Cabinet secretaries — over the coming months in a sustained, government-wide effort to share the 'wins' in the law. The legislation has 'something for everyone,' and the messaging will reflect the audience, the official added.
In Pennsylvania, Vance and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler will attempt to sell the law to working-class voters whose abandonment of the Democratic party helped put Trump back in the White House with a GOP majority on the Hill.
Vance plans to emphasize how the law's populist economic policy provisions will bolster the working class, including through eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and by incentivizing U.S. production, according to a person familiar with his plans granted anonymity to share them. The person added that Pennsylvania was chosen as the first rally because it's 'a working-class state' where Trump and Vance's 'closing campaign pitch was made.'
Vance, ahead of the final vote, focused on the bill's benefits to border enforcement, saying on social media that 'everything else' in the bill was 'immaterial compared to the [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] money and immigration enforcement provisions.'
But as Democrats have homed in on the legislation's cuts to Medicaid, which they say is a betrayal of Trump's promise to protect the working class voters who elected him, Republicans are keen to point out the law's more popular, and populist, benefits.
The person familiar with Vance's remarks noted that the vice president is still expected to highlight how the law is 'permanently fixing the Biden border crisis with the ICE funding boost and border wall funds.'
Trump has mostly touted the legislation as 'the biggest tax cut in the history of our country' while slamming Democrats for not voting on it — and name-dropping the handful of Republicans who spurned him.
'We had the most successful economy in the history of the country during my first term and we passed a bill — but that bill honestly, as good as it was, was nothing compared to this one,' Trump said Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
He urged Republicans to talk about the legislation's specifics.
'I say to people, Republicans, or anybody, explain the bill, because it's so big and so good,' he said on Saturday on Fox News. 'The Democrats, they only do one thing good, and that's complain, and they say it's going to cause death, and this and that, they don't mean it, it's a sound bite.'
Vance's rally is in one of the purplest areas in the country: Pennsylvania's eighth congressional district, where Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan narrowly unseated Democratic incumbent Matt Cartwright in November. It's also only about a dozen miles from Scranton, Joe Biden's hometown, which the former Democratic president often invoked to bolster his working-class background.
'Democrats in that part of the state are definitely working-class voters, and they're the quintessential type of voters that have come over to Trump over the past few cycles,' said Joshua Novotney, a veteran Republican strategist in Pennsylvania. Vance is 'just trying to continue to message to them and make sure that they continue to vote that way and understand that the bill is not going to hurt them.'
But polling shows voters largely disapprove of the law — and the party in the White House tends to lose vulnerable seats during the midterms, especially when the opposing party coalesces its messaging around contentious legislation.
'The Tea Party movement used Obamacare as a way to rally forces against Democrats who voted for it, and, in fact, against Democrats who didn't vote for it. Democrats this time will use the BBB probably in the same way,' said former Rep. Chris Carney, a Democrat who represented a Pennsylvania swing district until he was voted out in 2010 following his vote for the Affordable Care Act.
Novotney admitted it could be 'tough' for Bresnahan to secure re-election next year and that Wednesday's rally could be an attempt to 'solidify those voters.'
Bresnahan said he plans to follow the president's advice running for reelection 'on the accomplishments that are inside of this bill,' including the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, an expanded child tax credit and benefits for manufacturing and small businesses. He noted that the White House had chosen a family-owned manufacturing facility for the rally because places like that form 'the backbone of America.'
Bresnahan said he had run in part on securing the southern border, adding, 'when you're talking a bill of this magnitude, national security and the border had to be a part of these conversations.'
And for Vance, a potential presidential candidate in 2028, these counties could prove decisive to his political fortunes.
'It's a great opportunity for him, and a showcase for him, and that never hurts,' said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based veteran Republican strategist. 'These opportunities through the years will build his brand and build his awareness, and all the things that you need to launch a presidential campaign.'