Vice President JD Vance says the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk deeply affected his family and changed his wife Usha Vance’s views about having another child. In an excerpt from his new memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, published Friday in the Wall Street Journal, Vance wrote that the emotional response of Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, helped shift Usha’s thinking after years of resisting the idea of a fourth child.
According to Vance, Usha had long told him she was finished having children, especially after the family entered the spotlight of national politics. But after the Vances consoled Erika Kirk following Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting in September 2025, Usha’s perspective changed. Vance wrote that Erika told her she regretted only having two children with Charlie. Soon after the family buried Kirk, Vance said, Usha became pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, a boy, due in late July. The vice president framed the pregnancy through his Catholic faith, writing that “one life was stolen from us, but another was given.”
Vance said Kirk had been one of his closest friends and a major influence on him as both a parent and a political figure. He wrote that the two often discussed the pressures national politics placed on their families, including the strain of constant cameras, security, and public attention. When Vance asked Kirk how to help his oldest son adjust to life in the public eye, Kirk advised him to accept fame as a meaningful sacrifice for their movement. Vance said his son eventually adapted.
The memoir also describes the Vances’ trip to Utah after Kirk’s assassination, when they traveled to support Erika Kirk, comforted her, and escorted his casket home. Since then, Vance has continued to appear at Turning Point USA events, the conservative youth organization Kirk co-founded and which Erika Kirk now leads. Vance has spoken alongside her and praised her role in carrying on her husband’s work.
The excerpt highlights how central faith is to Vance’s political identity. His memoir focuses on his 2019 conversion to Catholicism and follows his earlier bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy. Vance has often linked his religious beliefs to his views on public policy and family life, advocating for larger families and criticizing what he has called the decline of childbearing among some women in politics and culture.
The story presents Kirk’s death as both a personal loss and a turning point for the Vance family, with Vance portraying the tragedy as reshaping his household and reinforcing the role of faith, family, and political duty in his life.
