Vance Visits His Ohio Hometown to Hail $1 Billion Investment in Steel Plant

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio—Vice President JD Vance stood against a backdrop of steel coils—with the workers who made them—as he announced the Trump administration’s $500 million investment in the Middletown Works steel plant.

The grant, which comes from the Department of Energy (DOE) and is credited to tariffs, will go to the plant owned by the company Cleveland-Cliffs. It will be matched by another $500 million from the company, making for a total billion-dollar investment in the Middletown factory.

Vance, who grew up in Middletown, was met by chants of “USA, USA,” when he took the stage. He spoke about his “Papaw,” who was a welder at the factory where Vance spoke.

“I can’t help but think about the last time a ‘James Vance’ stood in this very place; he had spent nearly 40 years as a welder at Armco Steel,” Vance said, noting that the same factory is now the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works.

“All he asked for from his political leaders was very simple: He asked that his taxes be reasonable. He asked that his community be safe. He asked that our politicians ensure that there were good jobs for men and women who were willing to work for them. And he asked that America never be asked to be the policeman of the world.”

According to Vance, that mission is what President Donald Trump’s administration is pursuing with the America First initiative, and grants like the one going to Middletown, Ohio.

Angie Burroughs, a 28-year employee of the steel plant, was one of the roughly 1,000 attendees at the event. She spoke to The Epoch Times, saying she and her coworkers were excited to see the vice president and be part of a pivotal day in the plant’s history.

She said people feel reassured about the future of the plant—which is vital to the community. “Everybody you know has a family member that works here. I mean, it just means a lot to everybody,” she said. Burroughs said Vance’s speech seemed to be “all from the heart.”

Robertson outlined what the money would be used for, saying it would help automate and optimize elements of the furnace operation to run more efficiently, and create a “waste heat-to-power facility,” as well as a new cooling system that turns molten slag created by the plant into a “valuable ingredient for concrete.”

She said the investment would modernize steelmaking: “It means quality, union-backed, high-paying American jobs, and it means secured livelihoods for thousands of skilled workers currently at this plant and new opportunities for the next generation of engineers, technicians, and steelworkers.

“It means reducing America’s dependence on foreign products and improving the competitiveness in our key domestic industries.”

She added that the Trump administration believes “that steelmaking is not a relic of the past, but a pillar of American growth and prosperity of our nation.”

Often, those job losses touched off opioid abuse, leaving grandparents to raise their grandchildren in small communities that were devastated by the loss of factories like the one where he spoke.

“Now, the blood of these men and women, these so-called deaths of despair … the blood of those people, in my view, it pools at the feet of those who would sell out their country for a cheap bottom line.”

For Ohio, however, the tide has turned in recent years. Gov. Mike DeWine noted in his address that the Buckeye State has “more jobs filled today than at any time in our history.” According to DeWine, a Republican, companies are leaving states like California and New York, and headed to states like his.

“They’re leaving the two coasts, and they’re coming to the heartland,” DeWine said. “They’re coming here to Ohio.”

Several attendees who spoke to The Epoch Times said they felt proud to know that a young man from their area had ascended to the nation’s second-highest elected office. They also said they felt a renewed optimism about the steel industry and the viability of the American Dream.

Tom Rhodenbaugh, a recent retiree of a different manufacturing company, said, “It was great to hear the numbers about almost ‘a new Industrial Revolution.’”

He noted that Trump had begun returning jobs to America during his first administration—a long process.

“It doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. “We’ve got to stick to it if we’re going to keep the revitalization going.”

He came to the event with Martha Steier and her husband, Gary Steier. Considering Vance’s roots in Middletown, “It just makes you really proud that he’s from here, and it makes you realize that anybody around you, or any child born today, could be vice president or president of the United States. That’s the American Dream,” Martha Steier said.

Her husband added: “The American Dream is alive and well … and if there is a meritocracy in place, I can get to wherever I want to be.”