(WXYZ) — Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, held their first rally Saturday in Grand Rapids after the Republican National Convention.
The rally took place at the Van Andel Arena. Doors opened at 1 p.m. and Vance took the stage early to deliver remarks before later introducing Trump around 5 p.m.
“This is like a Michigan football game over here,” remarked Trump when he took the stage, greeting the crowd.
Trump went on to talk about his dissatisfaction with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, saying that he'd like the chance to run against her.
“This will be the most important election in the history of our country,” he told the crowd.
Watch his full remarks here:
Watch the Democratic response below:
In response to the rally, Senator Debbie Stabenow attended a press conference earlier in the day, releasing the following statement:
“[Trump and Vance] are going to try to rewrite history and pretend to care about working people. But I just have to say, give me a break. I've worked with both of them, and I know that's not true. Michiganders, in fact, remember that Donald Trump was one of the most anti-worker, anti-union presidents ever, and his biggest accomplishment in office was a tax scam that made it easier for companies to ship jobs overseas,” said U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow. “Trump and Vance's vision for the future couldn't be more different from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's vision: one where we protect workers rights, strengthen our unions, cut taxes for the middle class, and restore reproductive freedom for every American.
If there are two things we know about Michigan voters: it's first, they don't like Buckeyes, and they don't like politicians who want to rip away their reproductive freedom and JD Vance is both. [Trump and Vance are] planning to completely ban medication abortion, being that women in every single state, including here in Michigan, where abortion remains legal, will no longer have access to this safe medication. And Trump's Project 2025 would rip away access to birth control and jeopardize IVF.
[Trump-Vance’s] Project 2025 will roll back Michiganders’ rights and freedoms, will devastate the middle class and will hurt workers, all while giving Trump power like no president has ever had over our daily lives. Simply put, it's the biggest attack on our system of government and our personal freedoms that has ever been proposed in modern American history,” said Biden-Harris Communications Director Michael Tyler. “Michiganders will face that choice there in the states, between the Biden Harris ticket that's focused on fighting for working families, creating opportunity for everybody and lowering costs, and on the Trump-Vance side of the coin, they'll see a harmful agenda that's taking away Americans’ rights, hurting the middle class, making life more expensive, all while benefiting the ultra-rich and greedy corporations.”
VIDEO: Metro Detroiters react to Trump picking JD Vance as a running mate:
Vance was named as Trump's Vice Presidential nominee on Monday as the Republican National Convention got underway in Milwaukee.
They were formally nominated following the roll call of states Monday night.
