As global leaders met in Davos last week and the world speculated about what would come next, Americans got a bit of happy news. This summer, a baby is coming to one of Washington’s most visible families.

Second lady Usha Vance and her husband, Vice President JD Vance, announced Tuesday that they’re expecting their fourth child, a son, in July.

“We’re very happy to share some exciting news. Our family is growing!” the second lady wrote on X. 

You don’t need to share the Vances’ political views to be happy for them.

A new child born while a parent serves in the second-highest office in the nation is exceedingly rare, making the Vances’ announcement all the more interesting.

A handful of first ladies have given birth while their husbands were in office, including  Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland. At least one second lady, President Ulysses S. Grant’s Vice President Schuyler Colfax’s wife, Ellen, gave birth while her husband was serving as vice president, according to Time magazine. That was in 1870. Vance’s pregnancy marks the first time in modern history we’ll witness a new child born to a sitting vice president.

Carrying a child is incredibly taxing — physically, mentally and emotionally — especially for someone with three young children. We imagine the stress compounds for someone also navigating extraordinary scrutiny and public attention. Usha Vance also strikes us as someone who can carry heavy burdens with grace and strength. She is an accomplished lawyer and thinker in her own right, with a law degree from Yale and clerkships under Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts. 

At 40 years old, Vance’s story will feel familiar to many millennial women who poured themselves into education and careers, then found joy in motherhood later than their own mothers did. In that sense, she reflects the range of choices open to women in modern life, rather than any single prescribed path. One of the youngest second ladies in modern history, she brings to the role a resume and life circumstances shaped by both ambition and a desire to build a family, an experience many Americans will recognize.

Now she is preparing to welcome a child at the vice president’s residence at 1 Observatory Circle.

The Vances’ three children — a daughter and two sons — are all under the age of 10. The Vance children have made appearances at campaign and official events, but their parents understandably do their best to keep their children’s lives private. Their fourth child will be born in the spotlight.

Still, a new life always invites optimism about the future.

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/26/usha-vance-second-lady-pregnancy-baby-vice-president/