Vice President JD Vance credited his late friend Charlie Kirk’s widow with inspiring his family to welcome a fourth child.
Vance, 40, revealed the deeply personal connection during a Thursday appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” the podcast hosted by three of Kirk’s former colleagues. The interview fell on the first anniversary of Kirk’s assassination, which occurred when the Turning Point USA founder was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University at age 31.
The second lady, Usha Vance, was also present for the emotional conversation with Erika Kirk that would alter their family’s trajectory. “I think probably this moment had more impact on me than it did on Usha,” Vance told the podcast hosts. “But when Erika looked at us and she was crying and upset — and this was one of the first conversations I had with her after Charlie’s death — and she said, ‘I wish we had more babies together.’ And that hit me like a ton of bricks, man.”
That single sentence prompted Vance to confront his own timeline. “If we get to the point where we’re 50, 60 and those years have passed us by, I’m never going to be able to go back in time and make a different decision,” he explained. “And I think, at least for me, it’s a big part of the reason why I was so enthusiastic about having another kid.”
The result arrived six weeks ago. “And so now we hold little Alec who’s six weeks old, and I can’t help but think of that connection to that moment,” Vance shared.
The vice president was careful to frame the birth not as redemption for tragedy but as a fragile light within it. “There’s no silver lining to Charlie’s death. It’s a tragedy. It’s terrible. It left a massive hole in the country. It left a massive hole in my heart, in my personal life. But there are these little rays of sunshine,” he said.
Vance’s bond with Kirk had formed rapidly after their first meeting in 2018 or 2019 at Fox News’ studios. Kirk became an early backer of Vance’s 2022 Ohio Senate campaign — “it was like my mom, my sister, my dog, and then Charlie Kirk was I think the fourth person to support me,” Vance joked — and later encouraged him to speak openly about his Christian faith.
Their connection ran deep enough that Vance escorted Kirk’s body from Utah to Phoenix aboard Air Force Two following the shooting.
The religious dimension of Kirk’s influence dominated much of Vance’s reflection. “Showing as opposed to telling, was always the most powerful Christian witness to me,” he observed. “I didn’t ever feel like Charlie was preaching to me. I felt like Charlie did things that made me curious about his relationship with God and that led to conversation between the two of us. It was ultimately very impactful in my own return to my faith.”
This legacy of quiet demonstration rather than explicit proselytizing, Vance suggested, would endure. “To be honest about Charlie’s legacy, I have to talk about my own faith and talk about his faith too. It sort of ripped this bandaid off for me,” he added.
The vice president also recalled Kirk’s unusual generosity of spirit in a field often marked by rivalry. He described preparing to deliver a major address Thursday night at the Republican midterm convention and remembering his 2024 convention speech, when “Charlie was down there, like looking up at me, cheering for me.”
“In politics, obviously people have big egos, and there are people who are like, ‘Oh, this guy’s been in politics for a couple of years, and now he’s the vice presidential candidate.’ There’s like a little bit of jealousy. Charlie just never had that. Charlie was always just the biggest fan of everybody,” Vance said.
Vance’s own political philosophy, he made clear, was shaped by Kirk’s practical orientation. “I just immediately recognize this is a guy who sees the world in the same way that I do. This is a guy who recognizes that the purpose of a political party is to make people’s lives better. It’s not to serve these abstractions. It’s not to repeat slogans that have been repeated for years,” he told the podcast.
“As much as we might agree with the underlying substance of some of those cliches, it’s to make people’s lives better and to build a kind of country where young men can become virtuous husbands and fathers and raise good families, and where young women can become virtuous wives and mothers and also raise good families.”
Despite his ongoing grief, Vance struck a note of tentative purpose. “As pissed off as I still am, as heartbroken as I still am, there is very much a purpose to this. We don’t fully understand it, but we got to have a little humility and try to understand that purpose and live by that purpose as best we can,” he said.
Kirk’s death at Utah Valley University sent shockwaves through conservative circles and prompted extraordinary security measures for memorial services. President Trump posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, recognizing his role in mobilizing young conservatives through Turning Point USA.
Vance, widely regarded as Trump’s likely successor in the 2028 presidential election, has maintained close ties to Kirk’s family and the organization he built. His appearance on the podcast bearing Kirk’s name represented both personal tribute and political continuity.
The vice president’s speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas capped a day of public mourning and private remembrance, with Kirk’s absence noted and his presence invoked throughout.
Vance is scheduled to continue campaigning for Republican candidates through the final weeks before November’s midterm elections.