Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio told voters in battleground states that Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris was running a “copycat campaign” after her staff revealed she was changing her positions on several key policies, including an electric vehicle mandate.
Vance held a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, where he spoke about the U.S. trucking industry, energy policy and the economy.
The Republican senator criticized the electric vehicle mandate, claiming that Harris wants to “raise the price of diesel fuel, raise the price of gasoline and make every truck driver in this country drive an electric vehicle.”
In December 2021, Harris spearheaded the Electric Vehicle Charging Action Plan, which aims to have 50% of auto sales be electric vehicles by 2030. Additionally, the Biden-Harris Administration will finalize one of the most recent environmental regulations in 2024, mandating that half of new car and truck sales be electric vehicles.
'Political maneuvering': Harris fends off shifting attacks as faceless surrogates shift key positions
Republican vice presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) speaks at a campaign event in Big Rapids, Michigan on August 27, 2024. (Al Goldis)
Amar Moosa, emergency operations director for the Harris campaign, wrote in a “fact-check email” on Tuesday that the vice president “does not support an EV mandate,” despite his past calls for expanding EV sales.
“If you look at her campaign over the last week and a half, she's pretending to agree with Donald J. Trump on every issue. She's running a copycat campaign,” Vance told the crowd.
Harris campaign staff said the vice president has changed his stance on several other key issues in recent weeks, including fracking, assault rifle buyback programs, a border wall and Medicare for All.
Harris' campaign is trying to flip the script, saying the Democratic candidate “does not support” an electric vehicle mandate.
“We have Vice President Kamala Harris who wants to be president, and she thinks truck drivers should be put out of business, that all truck drivers should learn computer code,” Vance said in Pennsylvania.
“If we forced every good truck driver to buy an electric truck instead of the one they currently use, the inflation crisis would be even worse than it is now.”
Israelis shared their views with Fox News Digital on what a Harris presidency means for the Israeli people. (Kenny Halston)
The senator added that a Trump-Vance administration “will put an end to stupid, job-killing regulations like the EV mandate.”
“If America's truck drivers can't do the job they do best, our economy can't function,” he said.
In response to accusations that she is copying Trump's policies, a Harris campaign spokesman highlighted several key policy areas where the two campaigns clearly differ.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23, 2024. (Evan Vucci)
“Unlike Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, VP Harris will support abortion rights instead of taking away them, cut middle-class taxes instead of raising them by nearly $4,000, and unite Americans instead of dividing them,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Most importantly, VP Harris opposes Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's dangerous Project 2025 policies.”
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Vance's speech in Pennsylvania comes a day after he addressed rural voters in Big Rapids, Michigan, and is the campaign's latest battleground state speech.
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