Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is scheduled to appear alongside Tucker Carlson next month when the political commentator headlines an event at the Giant Center in Hershey.
According to one ticketing site, seats for the Sept. 21 event cost up to $10,739, with prices starting at $95.
Senator Vance, a Republican from Ohio who rose to political fame with his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” portrays himself as the candidate of the forgotten working class.
However, he has come under fire for his comments attacking women (especially those without children) and diversity initiatives, and he has supported those who espouse extreme political rhetoric, including white nationalism.
The Ohio Republican’s net popularity ratings among voters have fallen sharply and continue to deteriorate. Polls have shown that Vance has the lowest popularity rating of any vice president in decades following the convention. He has a net negative popularity rating of -6 points, according to CNN.
Vance’s appearance with Carlson could be a repeat of a controversial interview that is central to his unpopularity among women, independent voters and some Republicans.
Shortly after being nominated by Donald Trump as his running mate for the White House, a 2021 interview surfaced in which Vance told the former Fox News host that the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy with their own lives and the choices they’ve made, and therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy, too.”
Vance then personally attacked Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Harris has two stepchildren with her husband Doug Emhoff.
Carlson’s stop in Hershey is part of a nationwide Tucker Carlson Live tour featuring several right-wing provocateurs, including Russell Brand, Dr. Kevin Roberts, Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump Jr.
Other guests on the tour include Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her support for Trump this week.
Harris continues to shrink while Trump maintains a narrow lead in polls in Pennsylvania, perhaps the election’s most important swing state. Poll aggregator RealClearPolitics.com says Trump now leads Harris by 0.2 percentage points in the average poll in Pennsylvania, making it a tie statistically.
Hershey Entertainment’s announcement in June that it would host Carlson’s event at the popular venue sparked opposition in the form of an online petition calling on the entertainment company to cancel Carlson’s performance due to his toxic, hateful and, at times, white supremacist rhetoric.
“Tucker Carlson has repeatedly damaged the integrity of our government and elections, marginalized people with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community, increased hostility toward people of color, allied himself with unfriendly foreign powers, and caused significant harm to this country that could be described as irreparable,” one of the online petitions says.
Hershey Entertainment & Resorts maintains its policy of treating all artists equally.
“The GIANT Center is a nonpartisan and nonpolitical gathering place dedicated to the diverse interests of our community,” the company said in a statement to PennLive in June. “We aim to provide a platform where a broad range of voices can be heard, regardless of their political affiliation.”
“As a public venue, we treat all political commentators and artists equally when applying to use our space, regardless of whether they are left, right or centre.”
