Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) called Vice President Harris “the biggest threat to religious liberty we’ve had in at least a generation” during a campaign event in North Carolina, and he suggested the administration was an “opponent” of individual freedoms.
“Now let’s just run through a number of ways in which the Kamala Harris administration has been a chief opponent of freedom of conscience, of free speech and of religious liberty in this country,” Vance said at a “Believers and Ballots” event in Charlotte.
“Number one, Kamala Harris — despite the fact that she says that she stands for working people, despite the fact that you know her running mate has this slogan, we believe in America that people ought to mind their own damn business — both of them pursued policies that would have people fired for refusing to take the COVID vaccine shot,” he said.
The Biden administration issued a vaccine mandate for federal workers as the administration sought to curb deaths from the pandemic. The administration also sought to impose a vaccine-or-test requirement on private employers with at least 100 employees. However, the Supreme Court later largely blocked that requirement while keeping a vaccine mandate in place for certain health care sites.
Gov. Tim Walz (D) also instituted a policy in Minnesota beginning in 2021 and ending in 2022 that required state workers to receive a vaccine shot or undergo regular testing.
Republicans have largely criticized Democrats’ COVID-19 response to the pandemic.
Vance’s comment came just days after Donald Trump had suggested “Jewish people would have a lot to do” with a loss if Harris defeated him in November.
Vance was campaigning in the state, earlier participating in a separate event in Charlotte on Monday. North Carolina is seen as a must-win state for Republicans to send Trump back to the White House.
Complicating Republicans’ path to winning the Tar Heel State is GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, particularly as CNN reported last week that the candidate had reportedly made eyebrow-raising statements, such as calling himself a “Black Nazi,” on a pornography website messaging forum.
An aggregate of North Carolina surveys by Decision Desk HQ shows Trump narrowly leading Harris at 48.4 percent to 47.8 percent.
