Vance to address hundreds at Michigan rally days after Kirk's death

Summer Ballentine and Grant Schwab, The Detroit News on Sep 17, 2025

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HOWELL, Mich. — Vice President JD Vance is set to address a crowd of hundreds Wednesday at a metal stamping plant here in Livingston County about a week after the assassination of conservative activist and Trump administration ally Charlie Kirk.

Vance was a close friend of 31-year-old Kirk, the founder of the conservative political organization Turning Point USA. On Monday, the vice president hosted Kirk’s radio show in a sign of support, and last week he transported Kirk’s body home from Utah to Arizona aboard Air Force Two.

The trip will also serve as an opportunity for Vance to promote the sweeping domestic policy and tax cut package passed by Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year. He will be joined on a visit to a plant for Hatch Stamping Co. by Michigan U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

The vice president will deliver remarks after taking a tour of the facility.

The Democrats' national U.S. House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, denounced the visit in a statement.

“JD Vance is parachuting in to lie to Michiganders about Tom Barrett’s toxic agenda, because Barrett can’t defend giving tax breaks to billionaires and backing reckless tariffs at Michigan families’ expense," DCCC spokesperson Katie Smith said.

"Thanks to Barrett and Vance, Michiganders are losing their health care, facing layoffs at their manufacturing jobs, and paying higher prices everywhere from the grocery store to their electricity bills.”

At the site of Vance's Howell rally, Darlene Rosati, a 59-year-old interior designer from Pinckney, Michigan, said Kirk’s death motivated her to attend.

Rosati read Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” and, as a survivor of a fentanyl addiction, connected with him. She had not heard of Kirk until his assassination, but said as a Christian, his death affected her deeply.

Rosati said she hopes Vance will give a message “that we can’t give up” during his Wednesday speech. She said violence is not acceptable and that adults must provide an example to children by not speaking badly about each other.

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