Representation Matters

For my entire life, I have never seen someone who looks like me in the White House. People like me felt unseen, invisible.

Now we see a small step in the right direction: J.D. Vance will be the first bearded vice president since Charles Fairbanks, who served under Theodore Roosevelt just after the turn of the 20th Century. And, indeed, the first VP with facial hair of any kind since Charles Curtis and his mustache left office in 1933.

Could the presidency be next? The first presidential beard was the one grown by Abraham Lincoln at the suggestion of eleven-year-old supporter Grace Bedell. But we haven't seen a beard behind the President's desk since Benjamin Harrison stepped down in 1887. (I'm not counting Harry Truman, who apparently stopped shaving for a few days while on vacation in 1948.)

It has been too long. I don't know what the future holds for Vance, but for the first time in more than a century, we Bearded-Americans have a seat at the table.