The Republican National Committee has reportedly sent out texts signed by Vice President JD Vance and seeking to raise donations ahead of the midterms that frankly acknowledge the cost of living crisis, conceding: “Groceries cost what they cost.”

Natalie Allison, a journalist with The Washington Post, received the message and posted it to X Tuesday with an accompanying screenshot.

The text read: “If you can’t give right now, don’t, Natalie. Groceries cost what they cost.” It then invites the recipient to click on a link to answer a short survey before signing off as the VP.

The link takes the user to an “Authorized Website of GOP HQ,” which hosts “A Letter from JD Vance” alongside the inevitable graphic of a bald eagle against the Stars and Stripes.

The VP’s letter begins on a surprising note – by apologizing for some of the tactics normally associated with political fundraising appeals, referencing “countdown clocks that expire at midnight and reset by morning” and “letters that show up every two years talking about your town, and stop the week after the election.”

“If you’ve stopped believing any of it, I don’t think you’re cynical,” Vance reassures his reader. “I think you’re paying attention.”

It then launches into his well-trodden backstory, as recounted in Hillbilly Elegy (2016), about his impoverished childhood in Middletown, Ohio, his mother’s struggles with addiction and his tough grandmother “Mamaw” helping to raise him.

Aiming for a tone of refreshing honesty, the letter attacks the electioneering politicians Vance says he encountered in his youth, who would “turn up when the plant was closing, say the right words about jobs, get the photograph, and we’d never see them again.”

Having established an intimacy, the VP makes his pitch and revisits the line from the text: “If you can’t give right now, don’t. Groceries cost what they cost. I’m not going to make you feel guilty over a number.”

The form then asks a series of questions about trust in the Washington establishment, invites users to submit a donation (the $47 option is pre-selected) and, finally, offers an opportunity to tick boxes expressing opposition to men playing women’s sports and “illegals” receiving Medicaid.

While there is a searchable database for campaign emails, no such equivalent exists for text messages. The Independent has reached out to the RNC for confirmation of its authorship and for further comment.

The Democratic National Committee has already seized on the wording of the text, accusing the Trump administration of “making life unaffordable for everyday Americans” and Vance of “turning a blind eye to the hardship of American families.”

The RNC’s decision to invoke high grocery prices is surprising given that President Donald Trump and Vance were elected in 2024 to address precisely that issue – and voters have repeatedly told pollsters they do not feel they have done enough to tame inflation and may even have made matters worse through their tariffs policy and Iran war.

Trump promised Americans a “golden age” during his second inaugural address and has repeatedly insisted the economy is in rude health, even suggesting that “affordability” is just a buzzword made up by Democrats, rather than a real blight affecting the lives of millions of people.

Stumping for Sen. Darline Graham in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last week, the president repeated his optimism, telling a rally crowd: “We have the greatest economy in our history. Now, some people haven’t seen it yet, but they will.”