WATCH: Vance speaks in a new North Carolina district seen as a GOP contender in 2026

Vice President J.D. Vance delivered remarks on the economy Friday in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in a newly redrawn congressional district seen as competitive for the Republican Party in the November midterm elections.

Watch Vance speak in the video player above.

Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley both won their party’s nominations for U.S. Senate in North Carolina last week, setting them up for a fall campaign that could determine control of the upper chamber of Congress.

Read more: Takeaways from the 2026 first midterm elections

Whatley and Cooper are seeking to vacate the seat vacated by Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who chose last June not to run for a third term. The two announced their campaigns weeks later and easily won their respective primaries in crowded fields.

Cooper’s nomination has brought optimism to Democrats who aim to reclaim the Senate this year by gaining four seats. Whatley, also a former Republican state chairman, entered the race when President Donald Trump endorsed him after Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, declined to run.

North Carolina, a traditional battleground where Democrats were able to hold the governor’s seat even as voters helped send Trump to the White House, was one of three states that began this year’s midterm elections, along with Texas and Arkansas, on March 3.