J.D. Vance gets an “A” from NumbersUSA; echoes Barbara Jordan in convention speech

Senator Vance has the best NumbersUSA grade of any general election candidate for vice president – or president – who has ever served in Congress.

Former President Trump’s running mate only joined the U.S. Senate in 2023, but in that short period of time he has taken multiple actions to address the border crisis, including supporting the Secure the Border Act to address asylum fraud, parole abuse, mandate E-Verify and criminalize visa overstays. These policy changes would achieve Barbara Jordan’s vision of a credible immigration system.

Between Trump, Vance (90%), President Biden (27%), and Vice President Harris (1%), three of the four have NumbersUSA grade cards from their time in Congress. Click their names to compare.

Echoes of Barbara Jordan

In his acceptance speech Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention, Vance sounded a whole lot like the late Democrat Barbara Jordan.

“America is not just an idea,” Vance said. “It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.”

Offering love and praise for his South East Asian immigrant in-laws, Vance emphasized:

“Now, it is part of that tradition, of course, that we welcome newcomers. But when we allow newcomers into our American family, we allow them on our terms.”

A promise to the national community

Vance has demonstrated an understanding that an immigration policy in the national interest would not only end illegal immigration, but would limit legal immigration to expand economic opportunities to sidelined American workers.

Watch him discuss immigration, wages, and economic opportunity with Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

In his July 10 address to the National Conservatism Conference, Vance dedicated the bulk of his speech to immigration policy. He talked about small town Springfield, OH and how immigration has increased the population by one third over the last four years, making housing unaffordable and straining the health care system.

Vance argues that on immigration, our political institutions have flagrantly thwarted the will of the American people by “rewarding” voters with more immigration when they keep asking for less.

And on the biggest stage of his life, Senator Vance vowed to break that cycle, saying “We’re done importing foreign labor, we’re going to fight for American citizens and their good jobs and their good wages.”