On a Thursday in the final weeks of the 2026 midterms, Vice President JD Vance joined Fox News host Jesse Watters for a televised town hall in Texas. A college senior, who also leads her campus Turning Point USA chapter, raised a familiar grievance: the average house now costs over $415,000, a figure that feels unattainable for many members of her generation. She asked how conservatives could urge young people to marry and raise children when the financial barrier appears so steep.
Vance’s deflection of the housing-cost question
Instead of addressing the cost of homeownership directly, Vance steered the conversation back to an earlier exchange about President Donald Trump’s comments on Ohio Senator Jon Husted. He noted, “I think I’ve been asked four or maybe five questions by my count. I’ve only been asked one question about Jon Husted’s ass, and it was by Jesse Watters.” Watters had indeed asked, “The president keeps saying that Jon Husted has a great ass. What’s going on with that?” Vance replied that he was “jealous” and added that the president had never made a similar remark about him.
Trump’s own remarks have been widely reported: at an October rally in Youngstown, Ohio, he praised Husted’s physique, saying, “I don’t do this with men very often,” and later, at a Northern Kentucky University gathering on October 17, he declared, “I examined his ass,” adding, “I never did that with a man before.” Vance’s quick pivot to this anecdote left the audience hearing a joke rather than a policy answer.
Underlying debate over housing affordability and political narratives
When Vance finally returned to the core of the question, he blamed the surge in home prices on several factors. He claimed that allowing “20 million illegal aliens” to purchase homes diverted property that “ought, by right, go to American citizens.” He also cited Wall Street and foreign investors as contributors to the housing crunch. While the latter point aligns with broader concerns about speculative buying, the figure about undocumented immigrants is not supported by demographic data and has been disputed by housing experts.
The discussion ignored a bipartisan housing bill passed earlier in the year that aimed to increase supply and curb speculation. Although President Trump declined to sign the measure amid a separate dispute over voter-suppression provisions, the legislation ultimately became law, offering a concrete policy response that Vance did not highlight.
Political fallout as midterms approach
Beyond the housing issue, Vance’s remarks touched on the broader election dynamics. He suggested that Watters might consider running for the Texas Senate as a Democrat, pointing to James Talarico as the party’s nominee. Republicans have been circulating false claims that Talarico is gay and transgender, a narrative that Vance seemed to echo indirectly. In the race, Talarico currently leads Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton by 2.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average, though the contest remains classified as a toss-up.
Vance concluded by acknowledging that many conservatives, himself included, have neglected the affordability problems confronting younger voters. He positioned himself as an exception within a party he said is “very focused” on making the American dream attainable, yet his earlier jokes and the reliance on unverified statistics left listeners questioning the sincerity of that claim.
