Senator Vance is testing out a new law and order message during a tour across critical battleground states, highlighting Vice President Harris’s and Governor Walz’s respective responses to the 2020 riots that consumed Minneapolis during Mr. Walz’s tenure as Minnesota governor. Mr. Vance announced his whistle-stop tour to multiple swing states just days after the Harris campaign scheduled its own plans. 

Appearing at Shelby Township, Michigan — situated in critical Macomb County — Mr. Vance on Wednesday said Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz would return America to the chaos that enveloped the country in 2020. 

“My message to the American people … is: We don’t have to accept this,” Mr. Vance said at his Michigan event with state and local law enforcement. “We just need better leadership. It is so simple.”

He discussed Ms. Harris’s record as a prosecutor in California, noting how she had downgraded charges of child sexual abuse so that it would no longer be considered a violent crime. He tied that “soft on crime” description of Ms. Harris to Mr. Walz, who Mr. Vance said let Minneapolis burn while Ms. Harris promoted a bail fund to help get rioters out of jail.

He explicitly made the case to minority voters in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, saying that he knows Black voters are especially harmed when police officers aren’t present to deter crime. 

“It is voters of color who benefit the most from public safety,” Mr. Vance said. “Tough on crime does not mean tough on everyone who lives in a neighborhood with high crime.”

“It is Black voters … who suffer the most when the police aren’t in power to do their job,” he added. 

Mr. Vance focused not only on domestic criminal issues in California and Minnesota, but the immigration crisis as well. Since President Biden took office, more than 8 million migrants have entered the country, a figure that does not include what a House committee estimates is more than 1.5 million “gotaways.” 

Mr. Vance repeated the old line from President Trump that legal immigration is perfectly acceptable, and that illegal crossings should be treated more harshly. “I’m married to the daughter of legal immigrants,” Mr. Vance said, highlighting the success story of his in-laws. 

During the question-and-answer period, Mr. Vance offered some lighthearted criticism of the press, saying they had let Ms. Harris enjoy her “honeymoon” as the nominee for too long. 

“President Trump will go anywhere … and answer tough questions. I will go anywhere and answer tough questions,” Mr. Vance said. “I’d ask all the reporters here to show a little bit of self-awareness and demand Kamala Harris … speak to reporters.”

“The media honeymoon for a person who runs away from the American people is disgraceful,” he added. Ms. Harris announced her candidacy more than two weeks ago, and has so far refused to do a formal press conference or sit for an interview. 

Mr. Vance did respond to one question about Trump’s assertion during his appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference that Ms. Harris “became Black.” Mr. Vance’s wife, Usha, is Indian American, and the couple has three biracial children together. 

Mr. Vance brushed off the reporter’s premise that Trump was questioning Ms. Harris’s racial background. The senator asserted that Trump was trying to make the point that Ms. Harris is a “chameleon,” changing depending on who she speaks with in order to gain a political advantage. 

“Kamala Harris pretends to be something different depending on the audience she’s in front of,” he said.