Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance breaks 'beard barrier' in U.S. politics

If former President Donald Trump and newly minted running mate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance are elected this fall, Vance would become the first vice president with a full beard in over a century.

Trump chose Vance, of Ohio, on Monday. Vance is a 39-year-old Republican in his first term in the Senate. Vance rose to prominence with the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

When Vance was elected in 2022, his beard made him one of the few politicians on Capitol Hill with facial hair, the New York Post reported.

The Post said there were rumors that Vance’s uncommon beard could have negatively impacted him as Trump’s vice presidential pick — with GOP campaign insiders telling The Bulwark that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee “just doesn’t like facial hair.”

However, Trump told Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade last week that the beard is fashionable, The Post said.

“He looks good,” Trump said, according to The Post. “Looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.”

Lincoln was the first presidential candidate with a beard to win an election, followed by presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison, according to Newsweek.

Laura Smith, a researcher of presidential history at the University of Oxford in England, told Newsweek that the frequency of beards on American politicians coincided with changing perceptions of hygiene and masculinity.

“In the late 19th century, it was very in vogue for politicians and men more broadly to have facial hair,” she said. “The reason being the focus on hygiene that came alongside reforms such as the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906 — by this period beards were subject to scrutiny and therefore not helpful for public image.”

Charles Curtis was the last vice president who had a mustache during his time under Herbert Hoover in 1933, The Post said, and Charles Fairbanks, who was under Teddy Roosevelt from 1905 through 1909, was the last vice president to sport a beard similar to Vance’s.

Newsweek reported that Vance has broken the so-called “beard barrier” in U.S. politics. Social media users agreed.

The most exciting thing about the Vance selection: He is breaking the Beard Barrier

— Matthew Gagnon (@MatthewGagnon) July 16, 2024

JD Vance has broken the longstanding "Beard Barrier" in American politics. Last candidate on a presidential ticket with a full beard was Benjamin Harrison in 1892.

— Will Rahn (@willrahn) July 15, 2024

JD Vance is the first candidate on a major party national ticket with facial hair since 1948 and the first with a beard since 1916. https://t.co/3D07RnzP86

— Zach Lowe, Ph.D., NBCT (@zdlowe) July 15, 2024