Vice President JD Vance’s campaign speech in deep-red Montana took another hit Monday when hecklers interrupted his remarks, marking the sixth time this month that protesters have disrupted one of his campaign appearances ahead of the midterm elections.
Even in a state Donald Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2024, Vance has struggled to get through his prepared remarks without someone in the crowd shouting him down.
The latest disruption unfolded in Belgrade, Montana, where Vance was speaking inside an airport hangar. As the shouting began, the vice president turned around, trying to locate the source of the noise. His supporters appeared to find the hecklers first, responding with boos and thumbs-down gestures.
Vance paused at the podium and flashed an awkward smile as the crowd broke into chants of “USA, USA.”
Security eventually escorted three people — two women and a man — out of the venue. One of the women raised her middle finger toward attendees as she was led away.
Vance then tried to brush off the interruption with a familiar jab at Democrats.
“You can rest assured that at any event that we do you’re going to have a few yahoos, who pretend that the Democrats aren’t who they already have shown themselves to be,” he said.
But the repeated disruptions have become a recurring headache for the vice president as he races around the country campaigning before the midterms. And his attempts to turn the interruptions into punchlines have sometimes created headlines of their own.
Vance has faced hecklers at six campaign appearances this month, including events in several Republican-leaning states. Rather than letting the interruptions pass, he has often fired back with insults, jokes or remarks that have drawn fresh attention.
At a rally in Lakeland, Florida, on October 1, a protester interrupted him, prompting Vance to call the heckler a “clown” and a “Democrat plant.”
Days later, an older man interrupted Vance’s speech in Alaska. The vice president complained that someone was trying to “ruin the party” before moving on.
In Tyler, Texas, Vance took aim at a heckler waving a Mexican flag, calling the person “crazy” before adopting an exaggerated voice and saying, “get the hell out of here.”
Then came two especially attention-grabbing interruptions in North Carolina and Ohio.
At a North Carolina event last week, a man seated directly behind Vance stood up and shouted in support of releasing the Epstein files.
Vance responded with a remark about the protester’s race and immigration, telling the crowd: “I’m going to have to amend something I said earlier: I said that we have had zero illegal border crossings in the United States of America. But one isn’t bad, right?”
The comment drew attention away from the original interruption and toward Vance’s own response.
Just days later, a man in a suit sitting behind Vance at a rally in Cincinnati stood up, removed his red MAGA hat and shouted, “you suck,” from just feet away.
Vance watched as the man was escorted out, then mocked his appearance, telling the audience that when the man took off his hat, “it was very obvious that he has not washed his hair in about three months.”
The string of incidents has turned what should be routine campaign stops into moments of confrontation, with Vance repeatedly having to pause his remarks and respond to people shouting from the crowd.
Trump’s Rallies Have Faced Similar Scenes
Vance is not the only member of the Trump administration dealing with disruptions on the campaign trail.
Trump’s own events have also been interrupted by protesters in the run-up to the midterms. At a Texas rally earlier this month, 18 protesters were removed from the venue.
Some confrontations have gone beyond heckling. In one incident, a woman who shouted that Trump was a “fascist” was punched in the face by a male rally attendee as the president looked on. Trump later referred to the woman from the stage as a “fat guy.”
The repeated clashes raise questions about how much attention these interruptions will continue to draw during the final stretch of the midterm campaign.
For Vance, the problem is no longer just one heckler or one disrupted speech. Six interruptions in a single month have created a pattern — and each time he tries to regain control of the room, his response risks becoming the next headline.
Watch the clip below:
