Politics
Vice President JD Vance Had to Ask for Help Remembering His Opponent’s Name During Iowa Rally
Vice President JD Vance hit the midterm campaign trail on Tuesday, May 5, with a three-state swing — but it was his appearance in Des Moines, Iowa, that generated the most attention, and not for the reasons he probably hoped.
Vance was in town to rally support for Rep. Zach Nunn, a second-term Republican facing a tight reelection battle this November. But roughly 20 minutes into his remarks at a steel plant, Vance, 41, ground the speech to a halt when he couldn’t recall the name of Nunn’s Democratic challenger, state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, according to People.
“I was flipping around in my notes here because I’ve been trying to find the name of the person that Zach is running against because we’re gonna, we’re gonna make fun of her a little bit,” the vice president told the crowd, per the outlet. He added, “I don’t know anything about her. What I do know is her voting record.”
The moment got worse a few minutes later. While discussing the administration’s efforts to assist Iowa farmers dealing with rising gas and oil prices tied to the conflict in the Middle East — which he brushed off as “a little blip” — Vance again couldn’t locate Garriott’s name in his prepared remarks. This time, he turned to Nunn for a lifeline.
“Zach, you’re going to have to help me out with her name here. I lost my page here,” he said, per the report. After a roughly 20-second pause, he found it: “Okay. There we go. Sarah Trone Garriott. There she is.”
Garriott didn’t let the moment pass. She responded with a video on X that included the clip of Vance struggling to identify her.
“Tonight I was holding a town hall in Jefferson, Iowa, when I found out JD Vance attacked me, or tried,” she wrote. She went on to criticize Nunn, 47, for aligning with Washington insiders and pointed to his 2025 votes to cut Medicaid, which rural hospitals have cited as a factor in recent closures.
The Des Moines event capped a busy day for the vice president, who kicked things off by hitting the polls with his son Vivek, 6, to vote in Ohio’s Republican primary before swinging through Oklahoma City for an RNC fundraiser, per the outlet.
