JD Vance’s mom proudly showed up to watch her “baby” on Inauguration Day as he was sworn in as the 50th vice president of the United States.
Wearing bright red, Beverly Aikins was front and center and beamed with pride as Vance took the oath of office and became one of the youngest vice presidents in America’s history. As Vance was sworn in, Aikins stood opposite and helped tend to her grandchildren.
Ahead of the ceremony, Aikins was pictured sharing a laugh with Donald Trump Jr. as she sat in front of billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Aikins recently revealed that she’s recovering from surgery but “nothing” was going to stop her from attending Monday’s inauguration.
“My recovery is slow, but I have an inauguration to attend on January 20. Nothing will stop me from being there,” she wrote in a lengthy Facebook post last week.
“My baby is being inaugurated as our next Vice President,” Aikins gushed.
Vance’s mother attended Ohio’s inaugural ball on Sunday night where she talked about how proud she is of her son, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
Vance recounted his difficult childhood in the 2016 best-selling memoirHillbilly Elegy, where he discussed Aikins’ drug and alcohol addiction. The memoir was later made into a moveie, with Amy Adams playing the role of Aikins.
At the Republican National Convention in July, Vance paid tribute to his mother. “I’m proud to say that tonight, my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober. I love you, Mom,” he said.
Teary-eyed, Aikins stood up as the crowd cheered for “JD’s mom.”
Vance’s memoir covers his childhood in a Rust Belt Ohio town, with his father walking out on his family when he was just a toddler. Years later, his parents officially divorced.
“Dad gave me up for adoption when I was six,” Vance wrote. He was adopted by Bob Hamel, his mother’s third of five husbands, according to the memoir. Aikins eventually began abusing substances.
Vance’s mother told The New York Times that it all began one day at work when she suffered a headache and decided to take a Vicodin pill to ease the pain. She enjoyed the sensation that came with it, the outlet wrote, and soon after started stealing Percocet and other, stronger pills.
She eventually lost her job, her nursing license, and her access to these drugs. So, she turned to heroin. “My brain loved it,” she told the outlet.
Vance documented one particularly harrowing experience from this period of his life. Once, while in the car with his mother, she accelerated to “what seemed like a hundred miles per hour and told me that she was going to crash the car and kill us both,” he claimed in the memoir.
She eventually slowed down, only to turn around and beat him in the backseat of the car, he alleges. Vance said he hopped out of the car and ran to the home of a neighbor, who called the police.
After that, his grandparents took care of him — and he took the last name he is now known by.
Aikins hit rock bottom in 2015, living out of her car, the Times reported. She checked into a sober living facility in nearby Covington, Kentucky.
After a difficult decade, Vance and his mom have patched things up and are now close.
“My fellow Americans... this moment is not about me, it’s about all of us, and who we’re fighting for,” Vance said at the RNC last summer. “It’s about single moms like mine, who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up.”
