Iran War Looms Over Vance as He Visits Iowa

As JD Vance neared the end of his Iowa debut as vice president Tuesday — a state more freighted with presidential expectations than any other — he felt compelled to recount one last emotional story.

Mr. Vance had just met two Gold Star families of fallen service members at the Des Moines airport, including one whose son had died earlier this year in the Iran war.

“They told me,” Mr. Vance said of the parents, “that their son’s birthday was today.”

Photos show Mr. Vance’s own son, 6, clinging to his father’s hand as he spoke to the families on the tarmac. Mr. Vance later told the crowd that he had looked into his son’s eyes on the drive from the airport — they “remind me of his mother’s eyes,” he said — and pondered what he would say “if this beautiful 6-year-old boy got older and decided, like his dad, to put on the uniform of his country.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/us/politics/jd-vance-iowa-2028.html