Springfield Mayor Rejected a Call with J.D. Vance, Emails Show (2024)

In the wake of Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance’s sustained attacks on immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, and a series of violent threats on the community, the city’s Republican mayor rejected a call with Vance, the state’s junior senator, according to emails obtained by Rolling Stone.

For weeks, Vance and Trump have pushed baseless lies about the city’s Haitian immigrants, most of whom are in the United States legally. Trump claimed during his Sept. 10 presidential debate that immigrants are “eating the pets of the people that live there.” Vance posted on X claiming there are reports of locals having “their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country” — even after the city manager told his office the claims were completely false.

Pressed to admit there’s no evidence for his claims, Vance recently said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” At a rally on Sept. 17, when Vance was asked whether he should fact check claims made by his constituents before broadcasting them to the world, the senator suggested that’s only the media’s responsibility. (According to The Wall Street Journal, one Springfield resident who blamed her missing cat on her Haitian neighbors soon found her cat was alive and well, living in her basement.)

The same night, Springfield’s mayor, Rob Rue, emailed Vance’s office to decline a meeting with the senator and Republican vice presidential nominee, citing “the serious nature of the threats we are facing.”

“It is disheartening to see our vibrant community drawn into the national immigration debate, leading to disruptions in daily life and increased security concerns. Over the past week, schools and public offices have been closed due to threats,” Rue wrote to Vance’s state director, James Coyne, adding: “On a personal note, it is disappointing that, as an Ohio native and elected official, you would speak about our community without first reaching out to me or my team to better understand the situation.”

Rue’s email noted that Vance’s office wanted to include “third parties in the conversation.” Karen Graves, a spokesperson for the mayor, tells Rolling Stone that Vance’s camp originally reached out to arrange a “private call” between the senator, mayor, and city manager.

“We initially considered accepting the invitation to have the opportunity to honestly discuss the spotlight that has been directed on our community, after having been drawn into the national immigration debate and to discuss the residual security impacts we have faced in light of the spread of misinformation,” says Graves. “We later learned that they wanted to bring some constituents (without providing their names or how they selected them) into what was initially portrayed as a private call. We decided that it was in our best interest to decline.”

Vance’s office disputes that his team requested the meeting with Springfield officials. A Vance spokesperson tells Rolling Stone, “Senator Vance’s office was confused by the last-minute cancellation of a meeting requested by Springfield officials. However, the door is always open for future discussion.”

The emails show that Coyne, Vance’s state director, wrote back to Rue the following morning, on Sept. 18, and expressed disappointment that “you are no longer interested in having the call your team had requested.”

He added, “Our intention in inviting some of these constituents to join the call was to help facilitate a dialogue between residents we have heard from with first-hand experiences and city officials to help him contextualize their perspective with yours.”

Rue responded that, given the threats that have rained down on Springfield, “it is important that any conversations on this matter involve only those directly responsible for the city’s leadership.”

He continued: “Any dialogue about our community should be grounded in facts and a comprehensive understanding of the situation. Unfortunately, recent communications have not consistently reflected this approach. The safety of our residents is a responsibility we take seriously, and it should not be politicized.”

Trump and Vance’s ongoing demagoguing of the small Midwestern city’s Haitian population this month has exacerbated a climate of anger, resentment, and growing terror — among both the Haitian residents and broader community.

When Rolling Stone visited Springfield last week, we spoke at length with Casey Rollins, executive director of the Springfield District Council of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic social-services nonprofit that works with the community, including the area’s Haitian immigrants and local poor. Rollins said if Vance were sitting in front of her right then, she would tell him: “You admittedly continue to encourage untruths and to provoke hatred among us all; politically posturing, and pawning Springfield for political gain. It is hurting all of Ohio, the nation, and our world; not just Springfield and the Haitians who are here with us. I wonder how that makes anyone in Springfield safer or more stable than we were yesterday?”

A number of Haitian workers and families in Springfield who Rolling Stone approached to interview said they did not want to be included or quoted for an article, even if completely anonymously. Most explicitly cited fear for themselves or their loved ones, given the current political rage directed at Haitians in the area. They also said they didn’t know who to trust. Some even conceded that they didn’t enjoy venturing outside their homes anymore, believing the city to now be especially dangerous for them and their children.

On Tuesday, a Haitian nonprofit filed criminal charges against Trump and Vance with a municipal court in Clark County, Ohio, for disrupting public services, telecommunications harassment, and aggravated menacing.

Team Trump plans to keep up attacks on immigrant populations moving into American cities and towns, with one Trump adviser telling Rolling Stone that “most voters do not want that to happen where they live and send their kids to school.”

The former president has pledged to visit Springfield, even as the mayor, Rue, has attempted to publicly discourage him from doing so. Speaking at a rally on Sept. 18, Trump joked about his potential visit. “You may never see me again, but that’s OK. Got to do what I got to do,” he said. “‘Whatever happened to Trump?’ ‘Well, he never got out of Springfield.’”

Trump has repeatedly promised to lead a historic mass-deportation of immigrants out of the U.S. if he is elected to another term. Despite the fact that most of the Haitian migrants in Springfield are in the country legally, Trump has pledged to start a new administration by rounding them up.

“We will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio,” he said. “Large deportations.”