The announcement on Friday that Republican Vice-Presidential candidate J.D. Vance would be making a campaign stop in Floyd County at the mill in Lindale.  The move is an appeal to working-class voters with Vance’s personal story of overcoming adversity and his populist, America-first message.

His visit to the historic Lindale mill is underscoring the pledge to revitalize American manufacturing and stand up for the interests working men and women. The announcement for the campaign stop, released on Friday, is meant to underscore the Trump-Vance stance on the issue of illegal immigration.

The campaign for former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee, has been aggressively pushing the border security agenda in recent weeks, clearly hoping to gain a strategic advantage over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. Trump’s team has been relentless in their efforts to make immigration a centerpiece of the election, recognizing it as a highly charged and divisive topic that could potentially energize their base and sway undecided voters.

By doubling down on hardline rhetoric and hardline policies, the former president’s campaign is seeking to portray the Democrats, and Harris in particular, as being soft on border control and national security.