Since Donald Trump named Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election, we’ve written reams about the senator and what he brings to the ticket. I wanted to highlight something about Vance that resonates with me, and it’s something that no candidate has brought to any ticket since 1880.
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There has been a certain look that all male candidates for higher office have cultivated for generations. Smooth-shaven and clean-cut has been the template for presidential and vice-presidential material throughout most of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The last vice president with any facial hair at all was Charles Curtis, Herbert Hoover’s VP from 1929 to 1933. Curtis rocked a mustache throughout his time in office.
ASIDE: Curtis was the first mixed-race individual to serve as president or vice president. His mother was Native American, and his father was white. (Sorry, Barack and Kamala.)
But you have to go back even further to find a vice presidential candidate with a full beard. That was William Hayden English, who was the running mate of Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock in 1880. The Scott-English ticket lost to James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur.
Benjamin Harrison was the last president to have a full beard. Harrison was a Republican who served in the White House from 1889 to 1893. In 1948, Thomas Dewey was the last presidential candidate to have a mustache.
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Newsweek reports about how Vance has finally broken the “beard barrier.” Social media has noticed, too.
An important tidbit of Presidential history. 🧔♂️
Down with the “Beard Barrier”! https://t.co/Bsuwq1lLI8
— 𝗝𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗺𝘆 𝗗. 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗻 (@OpinionatedK) July 15, 2024
Perhaps not the barrier that some were looking to break, but I’m in the Beard Caucus. https://t.co/7jtXFPehK9
— Jerry Greenspan 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 (@TheJGreenspan) July 15, 2024
So @JDVance1 has broken the “beard barrier” as @realDonaldTrump‘s VP candidate. Let’s Make Beards Great Again!
— Chris Queen (@ChrisQueen) July 17, 2024
The “Beard Barrier” has been broken by @JDVance1 . Last candidate on a presidential ticket with a ‘full beard’was Benjamin Harrison in 1892.
— Matthew Del Carlo (@MatthewDelCarlo) July 15, 2024
Newsweek also notes that Vance’s beard is a contrast to Trump’s dislike of facial hair. Reportedly, Trump denied John Bolton a cabinet position because of his walrus ‘stache.
However, the former president may have changed his tune when it comes to Vance’s beard, telling a Fox News Radio interviewer, “He still looks good, he looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.”
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As a man with a full beard, I welcome a bearded candidate to the vice-presidential race. It’s time that we had a little bit of variety from the clean-shaven club.
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