Estimates may vary, but at least 2,000 people gathered Tuesday at the Majestic Friesians Horse Farm outside Big Rapids to hear Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance deliver a campaign speech to a crowd vehemently opposed to the construction of a taxpayer-funded, Chinese electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in their backyard.

Although the heat and humidity were brutal, up to 4,500 attendees (according to one State Police officer who spoke under condition of anonymity to The Midwesterner), braved sun poisoning and heatstroke to hear Vance express a potential Donald Trump administration’s repudiation of the proposed CCP Gotion plan in Mecosta County’s Green Charter Township.

Speaking about his presidential running mate’s opponent, current VP Kamala Harris, Vance said: “Kamala Harris not only wants to allow the Chinese Communist Party to build factories on American soil, she wants to pay them to do it with our tax money.”

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Vance’s remarks came less than a week after Trump countered Gotion’s claims that the former president supported the EV battery manufacturing plant.

In a Truth Social post shared on X, Trump wrote: “A few weeks ago, the Chinese Electric Vehicle battery company that Michigan Democrats support, Gotion, claimed that I support its EV battery plant planned for Northern Michigan. That is not true. The Gotion plant would be very bad for the State and our Country. It would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. I AM 100% OPPOSED! As your President, I will make America’s Auto Industry bigger and stronger than it has ever been before, PROTECT American Workers, and TERMINATE the Green New Scam.”

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What began as local opposition to the Gotion project from a few vocal opponents in Mecosta County that began with a community effort to unseat the entire Green Charter Township Board of Commissioners that had approved the project has metastasized into a national political issue. The issue pits Republicans against Democrat politicians such as Harris, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Elissa Slotkin, a U.S. representative currently vying to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Prior to the national Republican ticket noted its antipathy against Gotion because of the company’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party, national security concerns, and environmental concerns, Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra has been fighting against the company’s proposed plans, as is former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who is Slotkin’s Republican opponent. U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, who represents Michigan’s 2nd District, which includes Mecosta County, has also been sounding the alarm against Gotion on Capitol Hill as chairman of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

Also speaking at Tuesday’s event was former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, who noted the environmental dangers posed by an EV battery construction plant in the Muskegon River watershed.

“We don’t even know exactly what chemicals they’re using, but we do know that they’ll be taking more than 700,000 gallons of our water every single day,” Dixon said. “My concern with Gotion is not only, where does it come from, but where does it go after it’s contaminated?

She added: “The environmental impact could be catastrophic, and it’s coming from the Chinese Communist Party.”