Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) on Tuesday called $500 million the Biden administration provided as a grant to convert a Michigan plant to one that produces electric vehicles “table scraps.” The senator from Ohio went on to suggest that the half-billion in funding pales in comparison to job losses the auto industry would suffer if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected in November.
After giving noncommittal answers to questions last week in the battleground state over the money allocated to General Motors to convert a Cadillac plant into an electric vehicle plant, Vance was asked again at his campaign event Tuesday in Detroit if a Trump-Vance administration would rescind those funds, a notion Vance rejected. He instead characterized the Biden administration grant as meager and told supporters more investment was needed — though he did not say what investments his administration would support.
“Neither me nor President Trump has ever said that we want to take any money that’s going to Michigan autoworkers out of the state of Michigan,” Vance said. “We certainly want to invest in Michigan autoworkers as much as possible. What we’ve said is that Kamala Harris is offering table scraps. Five-hundred million dollars when you have an EV mandate that’s going to cost 117,000 autoworker jobs, I think that Michigan autoworkers deserve more than the table scraps of Kamala Harris’s Green New Deal.”
The grant is part of a $1.7 billion plan that President Joe Biden unveiled in July to retool 11 auto factories to make electric vehicles and their components, with the largest chunk of funding — $500 million — going to help General Motors convert its plant in Lansing, Mich., from producing internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles. The investment is expected to allow the plant to retain more than 650 jobs and create 50 jobs.
Vance’s comments Tuesday come as Trump has painted the future of the auto industry under Democrats’ watch in stark terms, referring to the possibility of a “bloodbath” if he’s not elected in November and doubling down on opposing electric cars, which has emerged as a flash point in several key down-ballot races.
Harris, the Democratic nominee, went after Vance’s earlier statements about the plant last week, saying at a Friday rally in Flint, Mich., that the Republican vice-presidential nominee had “suggested that if Trump wins, he might let the Grand River Assembly in Lansing close down — the same plant our administration helped save earlier this year, along with 650 union jobs.”
After Vance’s comments on Tuesday, Harris campaign spokesman Joseph Costello called Vance and Trump “out of touch with Michigan.”
“Major investments in Michigan auto jobs made possible by Vice President Harris aren’t ‘table scraps,’ they’re a lifeline that is building the future of American manufacturing,” Costello said.
William Martin, Vance’s campaign spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday evening that Vance believed the current administration’s investments in clean energy and electric vehicles “is leaving Michigan autoworkers with table scraps” and that Trump and his running mate “believe our autoworkers deserve far more than what Kamala Harris has to offer.”
Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers, which endorsed Harris, said Trump’s economic plan would lead to job losses among autoworkers.
“The bottom line is that Donald Trump and JD Vance are a menace to the working class and are openly threatening to double down on Trump’s legacy of job destruction,” the union said in a statement.
Vance’s assertion that the Democratic ticket supports an “EV mandate” is part of a broader attack Republicans have leveled against Harris and Biden for some time.
The Biden administration has pursued stricter pollution standards for new cars and Harris as a senator in 2019 co-sponsored legislation that would have fully transitioned the United States to zero-emission vehicles. But Harris’s campaign has repeatedly said the vice president does not support an EV mandate. And in Flint, she told rallygoers, “Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) posted on X that she was “not surprised” by Vance’s comments on Tuesday, citing the manufacturing job losses in the state during the Trump administration and corporate tax cuts.
“With Vice President Harris’s help, we’re building back, bringing jobs to Michigan, and growing our economy,” wrote Whitmer, a co-chair of Harris’s presidential campaign. “While Michigan workers are relying on us to protect and keep creating more good-paying jobs, Donald Trump and JD Vance are making it absolutely clear they couldn’t care less about Michigan.”