Vance didn’t come to KC to hear from everyday workers — he came to campaign | Opinion
Vice President JD Vance dropped into Kansas City on Monday and visited the Milbank Manufacturing Company in the north end of the city. And while we were led to believe he wanted to talk about what the Trump administration is doing for those blue-collar, everyday American workers — whom they have referred to as the “backbone” of America — that is not what he actually did.
Vance did not come to Kansas City to talk about manufacturing. He came to bash Democrats and try to secure the 5th Congressional District seat for Republicans.
I don’t think he cares one iota about Kansas City, or Missourians for that matter, except that Republicans want Missourians to send one of their guys from the state’s 5th District to Washington D.C. But even at that, I would have thought Vance might have taken the time to learn a few things about the state’s redistricting map, who holds the congressional seat now, and who’s vying for it. He did not, or at least it seemed he didn’t.
He implied that Gov. Mike Kehoe had “moved quickly,” to pull together a redistricting map following the Supreme Court’s decision against a Louisiana redistricting map — when in fact, the Missouri map was drawn a year ago.
The vice president pretended not to know that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, currently holds the 5th District seat. When the crowd of his supporters told him, Vance responded, “I don’t know who that is.” Really? Missourians have voted Cleaver into Congress 11 consecutive times. You mean to tell us that you came into our state, our city, and didn’t care enough to find out who represents us in Congress? That would be lazy and dismissive.
Of course, Vance did say he is rooting for “any good” Republican running for the seat, but then had no idea which candidates are in the race.
Vance barely talked about manufacturing. He mentioned the industry’s workers only for a hot second of his 30-minute speech, saying the Trump administration is working to bring those jobs back. He didn’t say how, though. But he did say the country has seen “the biggest growth in manufacturing jobs in the last quarter than we have seen since Donald J. Trump was president the first time.”
Indeed, some sectors of manufacturing have seen job growth, particularly factory construction and production jobs, fueled by tremendous investment in data centers and computer and electronic equipment. But overall, in the past few years, employment in the sector has been in decline, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. It is slightly below pre-pandemic levels, with a little more than 12.5 million employees in April. The sector averaged more than 12. 6 million employees pre-pandemic from 2017 to 2019.
Vance snubs manufacturing group
We don’t know what Vance talked about as he toured Milbank, a company located in an industrial part of the city just south of the Missouri River. The plant makes weather-resistant enclosures for electrical power distribution controls for homes, businesses and commercial use.
But we do know Vance didn’t come to Kansas City to talk publicly about what manufacturing workers in Missouri need, or about what he and President Trump can do to improve the industry in this state — the heart of America. Because it seems to me that if he had, Vance or his people might have reached out to someone who knows what those needs are.
Michael Eaton, the executive director of the Missouri Association of Manufacturers, said he didn’t even know Vance was coming to the state, much less that he would visit an association member plant, until a state representative called him Sunday to ask if he would be attending the event.
He wasn’t the only one left in the dark. KC 4th District Councilman Crispin Rea said even though Milbank is in his district, he also was not told about the vice president’s visit, nor was he invited to attend. Rea, who will run in the April 2027 primary election for Kansas City mayor, said he visited the plant last year. “I think those folks want to be heard. They want to be listened to not just at a city level but at a national level,” he said. “Manufacturing impact on Kansas City is huge because those are good paying skilled labor jobs that set people up for success — a stable roof over their heads and food on the table. ”
He said, “what that means for Kansas City is opportunity for future generations. People should be the center of our policies, not politics.”
Eaton echoed Rea about who the worker is. And while Eaton said he was glad the vice president chose to visit Missouri and to stop at a plant that is not one of the giants we normally think of in aviation or automotive, he was disappointed that he seemed to ignore hearing from the everyday blue-collar workers in the more than 7,000 large and small manufacturing plants across Missouri.
If he had, Eaton said he would have told him that 80% of plants in this country have fewer than 50 employees. He would have told him that while manufacturing workers are optimistic, plants in the Midwest struggle with high costs and supply chain challenges caused primarily by Trump’s war in Iran and his global tariff policy.
He said that while he knows things are better than what they were during the pandemic, conditions for manufacturing are not what was forecast. When the industry struggles, Eaton said, it’s the little guy, the rural middle America plant that gets hit first and gets hit hardest.
Eaton said he visits hundreds of manufacturing plants across the state every year and sees the frustration on workers’ faces as they try to navigate staying strong amid rising costs, slow supply chains and trying to retain workers.
“I would love for them (the Trump administration) to understand the impact of their decisions on rural manufacturing,” Eaton said.
He said he believes elected officials at the highest level have “lost touch with 80%” of the plant workers in the nation. “You just wonder if everything they are doing is thought through,” Eaton said. “For God sakes, can we think things through?”
‘Forgot to invite manufacturing’
Eaton said he is simply puzzled about how the vice president comes to Missouri, visits one of the association’s member manufacturing plants supposedly to talk about what the president and his administration are doing for the everyday manufacturing industry worker, and never contacts the guy leading the state’s manufacturing association.
“If I had JD Vance standing right in front of me, I would tell him we are the voice of manufacturing in Missouri,” Eaton said. He said he would tell Vance that many of the workers in plants he represents “are strong Republicans. Where is their voice? You forgot to invite manufacturing to the table. We are never invited to the table. We are not even on your radar.”
I don’t blame Eaton for being frustrated and confused. But I am not. I feel certain the reason no one reached out to make sure Eaton was in Kansas City to talk with the vice president about the needs of manufacturing workers is because, let’s not get it twisted, Vance didn’t come to talk about manufacturing. That plant just happened to be the backdrop for a campaign speech. It was never intended to be a “we really care what the workers need” speech.
