Vice President JD Vance used a Saturday town hall hosted by CBS to draw a sharp contrast in Michigan’s Senate race, praising Republican nominee Mike Rogers as “courageous” for publicly calling for an end to the conflict in Iran — a stance Vance acknowledged is awkward for a Republican running statewide.
According to remarks flagged by Breitbart News, Vance told the town hall audience that Rogers “has been remarkably independent” on the war, and that voicing that position takes political nerve in Michigan.
“It’s not easy for a Republican who’s running for Senate in Michigan to say, for example, we’ve got to bring this conflict to a close,” Vance said. “He has done that, shown a willingness, I think, to stand against his own party on that.”
The vice president summed up his assessment simply: “I think Mike is a courageous guy, but, most importantly, he’s a problem solver.”
A challenge to El-Sayed: what’s your plan?
Vance also turned his attention to Rogers’ Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, arguing that criticism of the war effort is not the same as offering a way forward.
“I see what Abdul El-Sayed says about the war in Iran, I see he’s criticizing decisions the president has made, the military’s made, but, fundamentally, we are where we are, and you have to — in my view, I would like to know what is Abdul El-Sayed’s solution for the problem that we have right now,” Vance said.
He added that “it’s easy to criticize something that happened seven months ago,” before returning to his central argument for Rogers: that the former congressman is “fundamentally a problem solver.”
The exchange came during a town hall format that put the vice president in direct conversation with voters and a network moderator, identified in the clip as Tony. Vance used the setting to make the case that Rogers’ independence on the war is a feature rather than a liability — framing it as evidence he would prioritize results over party line.
An unusual line of attack in a battleground state
The remarks are notable for how Vance positioned the war debate within the Senate contest. Rather than defending the administration’s conduct of the conflict against El-Sayed’s criticisms, the vice president largely sidestepped that ground, instead asking what the Democrat would do differently and casting the question as the one that matters to voters.
That approach lets Vance spotlight Rogers’ willingness to break with his own party while keeping the pressure on El-Sayed to move beyond opposition and outline concrete steps. Whether that argument lands with Michigan voters is likely to be tested over the remaining weeks of the campaign.
The town hall also illustrates how the Iran conflict has become a live issue in down-ballot races, with candidates in both parties forced to stake out positions on a war that remains a subject of intense debate in Washington and beyond.
Vance’s comments were reported by Breitbart News, which published excerpts of the CBS town hall exchange.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/10/17/vance-courageous-rogers-willing-to-stand-against-his-own-party-by-saying-we-should-end-iran-war/