Erie, Pennsylvania – Sen. JD Vance struck a chord with Pennsylvania voters Wednesday when he touched on a topic that impacts millions of American families: drug addiction – which his mother battled when he was younger. Many in attendance at Vance’s campaign stop in the city of Erie told The Post they’re glad former President Donald Trump chose Vance as his vice presidential running mate because he can empathize with the struggles their families face.
Political support in Erie County is paramount as it’s considered a battleground county in the state. “I have two brothers who died of opioids,” said Mary Doyle, 63 and a stay-at-home mom from the city of Erie. “I know people in our neighborhood who have kids, they’re dropping like flies.
” “We saw Mary’s brother two years ago in a body bag. Opioids. Fentanyl poisoning.
And nobody talks about it,” her husband Dan Doyle, a fracker who opened for Vance, added. “Nobody cares,” Mary said, but “here you see JD Vance talking about it. Trump talks about it.
You don’t see the Dems talking about it.” She plans to vote for Donald Trump a third time this November, and is glad Vance is on the Republican ticket. Vance’s New York Times bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy put him on the map in 2016.
It describes how he overcame the violence and instability of growing up with a single mother addicted to opioids in Middletown, Ohio. His mother is now 10 years sober, Vance said last month at the Republican Nation.