History was made in central Wisconsin as JD Vance became the first sitting vice president to visit the village of Plover. On Feb. 26, at a local manufacturing facility, Vance pivoted from national campaign rhetoric to address pressing rural concerns, including agricultural sovereignty, the rise of data centers, and the health care facility closures.
Addressing a press pool, Vance said that Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has prioritized farm issues from the very first cabinet meeting. He emphasized the administration’s goal for farmers is to ensure “American sovereignty” in the food supply by providing support mechanisms to keep farms afloat regardless of commodity price fluctuations.
“If we don’t have American sovereignty in our food supply, we don’t have sovereignty at all,” Vance said. “The country that controls the food is the country that will ultimately control the entire world.”
The Vice President characterized previous trade relations with China, specifically regarding soybeans and corn, as “international fraud” due to unfair market access and the undercutting of American wages.
The Vice President also faced questions regarding rural hospital closures. He pointed to the administration’s Working Families Tax Cut, which included a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. Beyond funding, Vance argued that addressing labor shortages requires a fundamental shift in the American education system toward vocational and medical training.
“Our education system just really under-invested in training the next generation of health care workers,” Vance noted. “We layer up those who do with debt and we make it harder for them to join the workforce.”
Vance also highlighted the potential of data centers to drive a “technological revolution,” provided they partner with local governments to ensure they lower, rather than raise, energy costs for residents.
