Asked about affordability, JD Vance pivots to Jon Husted’s ‘ass’ during Texas town hall

On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance fielded a question about the cost of starting a family by first returning to a fellow Republican’s backside.

Days ahead of the midterm elections, Vance appeared with Fox News host Jesse Watters at a town hall in Texas. One participant asked how conservatives could reconcile their calls for young people to marry and have children with the financial barriers to doing so.

“A constant message that my generation hears from the right is to get married young, have kids young, have as many kids as possible, and I think what the right doesn't acknowledge most of the time is how disincentivized we are currently because of the cost of owning a home and the general expenses of raising a family,” the participant said. “And so my question is: How does the right and yourself expect us to start families young when you know the average price of a home in America now costs more than $415,000, which just feels out of reach for us?”

Related: Donald Trump rambles about how much he likes Jon Husted’s “ass” at rally

Vance initially sidestepped the question, revisiting an earlier exchange about President Donald Trump’s comments about Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s appearance.

“I want to point out that I think that I’ve been asked four or maybe five questions by my count. I’ve only been asked one question about Jon Husted’s ass,” Vance said. “And it was by Jesse Watters.”

Watters had indeed raised the subject earlier.

“The president keeps saying that Jon Husted has a great ass. What’s going on with that?” Watters asked.

Vance said he was “jealous.”

“The President has never said that about me,” he said.

Trump’s commentary goes beyond a passing compliment. As The Advocate previously reported, the president used an October campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, to discuss Husted’s physique, from his backside to his hands and jawline, while marveling at the senator’s college football background. “I don’t do this with men very often,” Trump said. He returned to the subject at an October 17 rally at Northern Kentucky University, declaring, “I examined his ass,” and adding, “I never did that with a man before.”

At the town hall, the vice president made a homophobic remark.

Related: ‘I never did that with a man before’: Trump fawns over Ohio Republican’s body at Kentucky rally

Vance suggested that Watters’ interest in the subject qualified him to run for the Senate as a Democrat in Texas, where the party’s nominee is James Talarico.

“Maybe you should run for Senate on the Democratic side here in Texas,” Vance said.

“I’d probably win,” Watters replied. In the final weeks of the 2026 midterms, Republicans have been falsely insinuating that Talarico is both gay and trans.

Talarico, meanwhile, leads Republican Ken Paxton by 2.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average, though the site rates the race a toss-up.

Vance did eventually return to affordability, agreeing that Republicans had paid too little attention to young people’s financial struggles while declaring himself an exception.

“I think the premise of your question is — Republicans — I would say everybody, but certainly my side included, that we don’t pay enough attention to the affordability problems that are affecting young people. And I would say you’re absolutely right, most Republicans don’t. I think that I’m an exception,” he said. “But I think that our entire party, our entire movement, and certainly I think the President of the United States, is very focused on, how do we make it possible for young people to afford the basic components of an American dream.”