Second Lady Usha Vance narrowly avoided falling face-first with her infant in her arms as she joined Vice President JD Vance on the campaign trail on Monday.
The terrifying tumble happened as Usha stepped off the vice president’s helicopter at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before boarding a flight to Alaska, where Vance is rallying Republicans as the midterm campaign enters its final stretch.
Usha held her nine-week-old baby, Alec, and a large brown backpack, with Vance following a few seconds later with their four-year-old daughter, Mirabel.
Uniformed service members standing guard on the tarmac watched on and did not move as Usha tripped and quickly caught herself before smiling in relief.
While military personnel typically remain still or render a hand salute to the vice president when he arrives or departs, the near-miss still fueled plenty of online commentary from observers enraged that no one tried to help.
“None of the men or officers standing there had the intention or desire to help? They remained stone cold in their position! Come on!” lamented one woman on X.
“You’d think a sitting VP trailing right behind her would grab the heavy bag so she isn’t soloing steps with a baby,” said another.
Vance’s trip to Alaska is his latest campaign stop ahead of the November 3 election and comes amid growing concerns that Republicans could lose control of Congress because of anger over cost-of-living pressures.
Explaining why his wife and two of his four children were joining him on the campaign trail, Vance earlier joked to reporters: “This is Usha’s 50th state, which is why we are bringing a nine-week-old baby on a 7.5-hour flight to Alaska—so if I give a speech tonight and I look haggard and stressed out, that’s exactly why.”
The family trip could help Vance project exactly the kind of image MAGA wants: a young, devoted father bringing his wife and children with him as he hits the campaign trail.
But the optics also underscore just how much is riding on the Republican effort to hold on to power in November.
Usha and JD Vance have four children: Ewan, 9, Vivek, 6, Mirabel, 4, and baby Alec, who is the first baby born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years.
“It’s different to wonder whether people are watching when you’re struggling with some of the things that any parent of any newborn struggles with,” Usha recently said in a Daily Caller interview about raising Alec in the public eye.
“But people have been really wonderful about it.”
“He has a Secret Service detail. None of our newborns had that before,” the 40-year-old added.
“It’s sort of an absurdity because he’s always attached to me. He’s never anywhere far from me.”
