Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio could become the first vice president with facial hair in nearly a century if former President Donald Trump retakes the presidency in November.
On Monday, the 39-year-old junior senator was announced as Trump’s running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Vance, who could become the first millennial vice president, would also bring back facial hair to one of the highest elected offices in the nation.
The Wall Street Journal reported Vance could be the first major vice presidential or presidential candidate in almost a century to have facial hair. Former President Harry Truman sported a goatee while in office in 1948. Charles Curtis, the number two behind former President Herbert Hoover between 1929 to 1933, had a mustache and was the last vice president to have facial hair, according to Slate.
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Photos in the Library of Congress online show other vice presidents with notable facial hair. Schuyler Colfax, who was vice president from 1869-1873 for former President Ulysses S. Grant, had a full beard. Charles A. Fairbanks, who served from 1905-1909 in the Theodore Roosevelt administration, had a thick goatee. Thomas Marshall, President Woodrow Wilson’s vice president from 1912-1916, had a neat mustache.
There was speculation ahead of Trump’s VP pick that he’d steer away from someone with facial hair. In 2018, CNN and other outlets reported that Trump had reservations about hiring John Bolton because of his thick mustache. However, Trump hired him anyway to replace H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser.
Before the RNC, Trump was asked to respond to a report in the conservative news site The Bulwark on whether Vance’s facial hair would hurt his chances to be VP. Trump said no and that Vance looked “good.”
“He looks like a young Abraham Lincoln,” Trump told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on July 10.