Vance Announces Truck License Crackdown in Stump Speech for GOP Candidates

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich.—Vice President JD Vance announced a crackdown on illegal commercial trucking operations while urging Michigan voters to support Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections during a rally near the Motor City on Aug. 31.

“Today is about a story, the basic principle that if you want to drive a big truck on America’s roads, you ought to be able to speak English, you ought to be a legal resident of the United States of America, and you ought to have basic qualifications,” Vance said during the event held at the Urban Tree Trimming company’s warehouse.

“Because trucking is too important to let it go to border crossers.”

Approximately 200,0000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) were issued to unqualified individuals, including many illegal aliens, he said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, both members of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vance, spoke at the event, highlighting new efforts to investigate businesses suspected of issuing fraudulent commercial driver’s licenses.

“Our country’s full of driving schools that are handing out fake CDLs to fraudsters,” Ferguson said. “They’re essentially arming fraudsters with 40-ton weapons that are driving down the highway next to your families and your children.”

Task force efforts unveiled nearly $250 billion in fraud affecting the federal government since President Donald Trump established the group in March, with hundreds of arrests and four of the top-10 serial fraudsters apprehended, according to Ferguson.

Duffy also announced upcoming “common sense” fuel economy standards, “because we want Detroit to build cars that Americans want to buy, not cars that Democrats want Washington ​to build.”

He added that Chinese cars and related technologies will not enter American markets for assembly or sale.

Speaking to hundreds of supporters surrounded by patriotic red, white, and blue banners, the vice president warned of increasingly divisive political rhetoric affecting the country.

“When you have people who start to say, ‘My ethnic group deserves something and yours doesn’t,’ or ‘that ethnic group is good, and this other ethnic group is bad,’ that is how you erode the very foundations of commonality and common citizenship that we need to continue to have the United States be the most powerful and prosperous nation anywhere in the world,” Vance said.

“I believe in the United States of America that is on the rise, and what I’d ask all of you to do is to … reject the people who try to divide us, one race against the other, one religion against the other.”

He touted the achievements of Republicans running in the state while offering his endorsements.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) will face off against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed to replace Democrat Sen. Gary Peters after the sitting senator decided not to seek reelection.

The Republican candidate listed issues affecting Michiganders, including expensive utility rates and auto insurance premiums, as evidence the state is ready for a change in leadership.

“Over a quarter century, we’ve had two Democrat U.S. senators representing our state saying the same thing, talking the same way, and voting the same,” Rogers said.

El-Sayed, an epidemiologist, campaigned in favor of Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and bringing back the Immigration and Naturalization Service, passing a moratorium on U.S. data centers, and ending U.S. military support for Israel.

Former Republican Rep. Jim James’s decision to run for governor left his congressional seat open, and voters will choose between Army veteran Mike Bouchard and former prosecutor Democrat Christina Hines.

Bouchard drew clear distinctions between his campaign and that of his opponent’s, describing the Democratic Party’s agenda as trending toward communism.

“We won’t walk towards socialism or communism. We cannot choose a path that has failed country after country and left every society that’s tried it in ruins,” Bouchard said. “I have seen this map abroad, and I promise you that it does not work.”

Echoing the vice president’s message, he called for more unity and shared priorities.

“This is truly the greatest country in the world,” Bouchard said. “We just need to unite as Americans once again. It’s time to put our people first, this country first, and this district first.”

Hines said on X that as a congresswoman, she will “champion common sense issues like lowering costs for working families, fighting against big tech and social media programs that hurt our kids and serving everyday citizens by protecting our lake, our base, and our businesses right here in southeast Michigan.”

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) will square off against machinist Democrat Ray Pooley.

“This is a contest and a contrast between common sense and, I say, communist crazy. So stop with the socialist. Socialism leads to communism, and that’s who they are,” she said.

Pooley’s campaign positions him as the people’s candidate, focusing on his strong work ethic and community background.

“This campaign was never about me,” Pooley posted Aug. 5 on X. “It’s about us and building a better America.”