The last time Republican politician JD Vance was on Nantucket to raise money was as a Senate candidate from Ohio in 2022, when admission to the fundraising event where he appeared was $2,500.
On Tuesday, as Vice President of the United States, Vance was the main attraction at a dinner at a private residence on the wealthy Cape Cod island, where couples paid $100,000 to attend and $250,000 to join the host committee.
The Nantucket Current reported from the street leading toward the Vance dinner, where a group of protestors assembled. As seen in the photos and video (below), many of the female protestors wore headbands with “cat ears.”
Protestors have assembled on Cliff Road, the street leading toward the GOP fundraiser that Vice President JD Vance will attend tonight pic.twitter.com/Iq2hX43f9P
— Nantucket Current (@ACKCurrent) July 22, 2025
Several protestors in the predominantly female group wearing cat ears held signs and wore shirts related to Vance’s comment about the country being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”
[Note: In a 2021 interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Vance complained that the U.S. was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” Vance suggested that people without children “don’t really have a direct stake in” the future of the country.]
The Nantucket protestors held signs including “My cat respects women,” “Honk for women’s rights,” and “Cat women scratch back.”
Another sign poked fun at Vance’s past claim about Haitian immigrants eating cats in Ohio: “JD Vance ate my cats.”
The protests continued as people paddled past the Galley Beach restaurant chanting at sunset pic.twitter.com/tfl65gyYUB
— Nantucket Current (@ACKCurrent) July 23, 2025
Not all of the protestors wore cat ears. Other signs raised at the protest revealed a variety of anti-Trump administration messages including “Hands off LGBT!” and “Hands off immigrants” and “Hands off science.” As seen above, some protestors also paddled past the Galley Beach restaurant chanting at sunset.
Note: Bob Reynolds, President and CEO of Putnam Investments, and his wife Laura Reynolds, were the hosts of the Vance dinner with Dave Kelsey and Ozzie Palomo, co-founder of Chartwell Strategy Group. Palomo was previously connected with the presidential campaign of former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.
