A proposal to honor vice president-elect J.D. Vance at a city council meeting in tiny Middleton, Ohio, was disrupted when a dispute broke out this week after his mother made a plea to the city fathers to acknowledge his part in Donald Trump's 2024 election win.
According to a report from WCOP, a local ABNC affiliate, Beverly Aikins, Vance’s mother, spoke to the city council on Thursday to request that her son get some type of honor for becoming vice president.
The report notes she explained, "I am just here because I am JD Vance’s mother and as you know he is our new vice president-elect and he thinks of Middletown as his home. I still live here and his sister still lives in Middletown. He’s got two nieces who live here and I just think it would be nice if we could acknowledge that this is his hometown and put up some signs."
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She then added, "He graduated from Middletown High School, he comes back here frequently to visit me and take me to dinner, and I humbly request that.”
That, in turn, led to a debate, where, reportedly, her plea was not greeted with unanimous enthusiasm.
As Lauren Pack of the Journal-News reported, "Councilman Paul Lolli said there are two issues concerning the JD Vance recognition — what wasn’t done by the city after the election through social media and what is going to be done going forward."
Lolli proposed, "To me, our communication department should have done this weeks ago. I would like to ask the communications department to get something out by the end of the week. That is what a lot of people in Middletown are extremely upset about."
That received pushback from Councilwoman Jennifer Carter who claimed, “I would think that we would wait and see what happens. (Kayla Harrison, Kyle Schwarber, etc.) proved themselves before we put those signs up.”
After Lolli replied, "JD won,” Carter parried, "Let’s see what he does ... what’s the rush.”
“What we are saying is the fact that the city won’t even recognize that a Middletonian has been elected as vice president that is a problem. I would say the same thing if it were an independent or a Democrat. We should be proud," Councilman Steve West II, offered to which Mayor Elizabeth Slamka added, “It is fair to recognize. That is in the works. I am not a political person. It can be very polarizing. But I think we can recognize.”
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