BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — U.S. Sen. JD Vance rallied with supporters in Big Rapids on Tuesday as he looked to turn local frustration over an electric vehicle battery plant project with ties to China into enthusiasm for former President Donald Trump’s campaign this fall.

Vance, Trump’s running mate and the junior senator from Ohio, said Trump returning to the White House also would signal a return to economic stability and manufacturing competitiveness, arguing that Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is part of a Biden administration that has too openly embraced foreign companies — particularly those from China — to operate in the U.S.

“Our corrupt leadership said if you put tariffs on China, prices will go up,” Vance said, referring to economic tariffs Trump placed on Chinese imports during his time in office. “Instead, Donald Trump did exactly that, manufacturing came back and prices went down for American citizens. They went up for China.”

Vance spoke in front of nearly 2,000 people, according to the campaign. The crowd braved intense heat to attend the rally, which was held at a sprawling horse farm just off U.S. Highway 131.

Vance hammered Harris, and President Joe Biden — whom Harris officially replaced atop the Democratic ticket last week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — on manufacturing jobs. Preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show a slight increase in the number of manufacturing jobs nationwide since the start of 2020, Trump’s final year in office.

Vance’s visit to Big Rapids, about an hour drive north from Grand Rapids, wasn’t coincidental: While the city has fewer than 8,000 residents, it’s neighbor to a planned electric vehicle battery plant project overseen by Gotion, a Chinese company. Gotion pledges to invest $2.4 billion to create almost 2,400 jobs in nearby Green Charter Township, and the project has received hundreds of millions of dollars in state-backed incentives to get off the ground.

But there is fierce local opposition to the project, so much so that residents in Green Township voted last fall to remove several local officials who championed the project. After taking office, the new township board voted to cancel infrastructure plans key to the plant’s construction. Gotion sued the board in federal court and a judge ordered the township to resume the contract earlier this year. The township has appealed the order.

There still remains fervent opposition to the project, despite the touted job creation Gotion leaders and supporters of the project say it will bring. At the rally, there were several large signs saying “No to Gotion.”

One Big Rapids resident, Autumn Turner, 28, said she’s among those concerned about the Gotion project, saying the plant would affect nearby farmland.

“I think our farmland really brings our community together,” Turner said before Vance spoke. While supporters of the project tout the jobs Gotion has promised when the plant opens, Turner said “they’re not American jobs.”

While Republicans controlled the Michigan Legislature when state leaders allocated funding for the Gotion project, it’s become a common opponent for many in the party. Mike Rogers, a former congressman who is now the Republican candidate for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat this fall, recently joined a rally with Gotion opponents in Big Rapids and again spoke against the project on Tuesday.

Vance said the Gotion project is an example of Democratic candidates, namely Harris, backing Chinese projects receiving taxpayer funds.

More:Why JD Vance is coming to Big Rapids: Electric vehicles and China

More:Replay: JD Vance speaks in Big Rapids on economy, inflation

“China has also stolen from Michigan car companies and unfairly subsidized its auto industry for years, that is the wreckage of what the Chinese have been doing,” Vance said. “Now the Democrats in this state, and Kamala Harris, want to give them hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The Harris campaign points to tariffs placed on China’s electric vehicle industry by the Biden administration as a way of protecting domestic automakers.

Turner, a mother of two small children, also said she supports Trump because she believes the former president would have better economic policies.

“I would like gas to be cheaper again. I would like milk to be under $5,” she said.

Democrats are quick to note that inflation is decreasing. At an event in Grand Rapids Tuesday morning, U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids, said while Trump was in office, his tax cuts mainly benefitted wealthier Americans at the expense of the middle class.

And Scholten defended the Gotion project, saying that foreign companies, like Gotion, go through strict scrutiny before receiving incentives. She noted the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party as an example. U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Caledonia, who chairs the committee, has been a frequent critic of Gotion’s project.

“We do need a smart strategy to make sure that we are at the height of American competitiveness when it comes to China,” Scholten said. “But we also need jobs, so we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let’s make sure that we’ve got smart investment here in west Michigan, and just because we’ve got some ties to China, doesn’t mean we should prevent good paying jobs from coming right here to west Michigan. Let’s make sure we’re doing it in a smart way.”

Vance’s stop in Big Rapids on Tuesday was the first of two planned stops in Michigan by the Trump campaign this week. On Thursday, Trump is scheduled to speak in Potterville, with the campaign saying the event also will focus on the economy, manufacturing and inflation.

Michigan, once again, will be a key battleground state in this year’s election. Harris and campaign surrogates are also expected to frequent the state this fall, with second gentleman Doug Emhoff slated to campaign in Grand Rapids on Thursday as well.

The state is also expected to be extremely competitive once again — Trump won Michigan by around 10,000 votes in 2016, and Biden won by around 154,000 votes in 2020. The RealClearPolling average currently shows Harris with an average lead of 2.3 percentage points over Trump in public opinion polls, with a bit more than two months to go until the November election.