Vice President JD Vance at a stop in Plover today repeatedly praised U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden and urged Wisconsinites to reelect the Prairie du Chien Republican to a third term in November.
Vance spoke at Pointe Precision, a machining facility in Van Orden’s 3rd CD, to tout Trump administration policies following the State of the Union address Tuesday night.
During his remarks, Vance said Van Orden is “one of those guys you can trust to always fight for the people who are in this room” and repeated his name more than 20 times. Vance said policies eliminating taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security happened “because of Derrick” and that voters will have him to thank when they receive “a big tax refund check” in the coming months.
“The question in November is do we give power to the people who fight for corruption, who fight for fraud, who fight for illegal aliens, or do we give the government to the American citizens for whom it was designed and for whom it was created,” Vance said. “I think I know the answer—let’s vote for our people. Let’s vote for Derrick Van Orden next November.”
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Van Orden, who also spoke at the event, touted tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“We are a pub culture in the state of Wisconsin. When we go down to the bar and we’re watching the Packers games or the Brewers, you know who’s helping us? Our servers. No tax on their tips!” Van Orden yelled.
In a virtual news conference ahead of Vance’s speech, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, said the vice president came to Plover to “shore up” Van Orden amid a series of votes that she said include cutting Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion and slashing FoodShare.
She accused Van Orden of backing Trump administration policies “at every single turn,” regardless of the impact on his constituents.
“Wisconsinites are really struggling, and they deserve independent leadership and not somebody who’s simply a rubber stamp,” Baldwin said.
Several Wisconsin Republicans flew to the stop on Air Force Two, including Van Orden, U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil, of Janesville, and Glenn Grothman, of Glenbeulah, according to photos Steil posted on X. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, was also at the event, along with state GOP Chair Brian Schimming, State Treasurer John Leiber and Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point.
Vance said Tiffany, whom Trump has endorsed in the governor’s race, is “another guy without whom we could not have accomplished all the great things that we did in Washington, D.C.”
He also criticized Gov. Tony Evers and the state for refusing to turn over Wisconsin’s food stamp rolls and voter data to the federal government, which he called “absurd.”
“Ask yourself a question: why would the government of Wisconsin not want to help us kick fraud off of the welfare rolls and kick fraud off of the voter rolls? And the only answer I can possibly come up with is because they like to cheat. There’s no other real explanation,” Vance said.