JD Vance’s Halloween costume this year was Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts headmaster J.K. Rowling has said is gay. The vice president posted a video on X on Saturday evening, Oct. 31, in a long gray wig and silver robe, holding his 3-month-old son, Alec, dressed as Dobby.
“Hey guys, Vice President Dumbledore here with little Dobby the Elf,” Vance said in the clip, IBTimes UK reported. “Wishing you a happy Halloween. Have fun, be safe, eat a lot of candy.”
He captioned it “Happy Halloween everyone!”
The @VP account had posted a family photo two minutes earlier, captioned “Happy Halloween from the Second Family!” One of the boys is Harry Potter in it, and Usha Vance wears a brown wizard hat.
Is Dumbledore Gay? Yes, and Rowling Said So in 2007
“Making crude cracks about Talarico’s sexuality, then opting to dress up as a gay wizard. That’s about right,” journalist Michael Weiss wrote on X on Oct. 31.
Rowling settled the gay part at Carnegie Hall in 2007. A young fan wanted to know whether Dumbledore ever found “true love.”
“Dumbledore is gay,” she said. The crowd gasped, then applauded, The Associated Press reported.
Rowling told the room he’d fallen for the dark wizard Grindelwald and was “horribly, terribly let down.” She called that love his “great tragedy.” “Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” she said.
She’d have told fans sooner “if I knew it would make you so happy,” she added, according to ABC News.
Critics Tie JD Vance’s Halloween Costume to His Talarico Joke
Weiss was referring to Oct. 13, when Vance campaigned for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton outside an airport hangar in Tyler, Texas. Answering someone in the crowd, he said, “I love you, too, sir.” Then he added, “In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico,” HuffPost reported. Talarico is the Democrat running against Paxton.
“This was certainly a choice,” MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas posted on X.
In July 2023, then-Sen. Vance of Ohio introduced the Protect Children’s Innocence Act. It proposed up to 12 years in prison for providing specified gender-affirming treatments to people under 18. The bill covered puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries, with listed medical exceptions.
On Joe Rogan’s podcast in October 2024, he said, “Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if me and Trump won just the normal gay guy vote,” The New Republic reported. Those voters, he said, “just want to be left the hell alone.”
“If you care about your children, do not vote for James Talarico,” the narrator of one Texas ad says. Republicans have put an estimated $58 million into transgender-themed ads in that race alone, an Associated Press analysis found. Nationally, the figure hit about $183 million through Oct. 25.
“The interesting question isn’t why Republicans are running these ads, it’s whether they’re still persuading anyone or simply reinforcing attitudes voters already hold,” Republican pollster Chris Wilson said, according to the AP. Voters in five states also decide six ballot measures on trans rights Tuesday.
Vance Says Dumbledore Is ‘Kind of Like Fat Old JD’
Vance gave the costume away two days early. In a Fox News town hall with Jesse Watters that aired Oct. 29, he said, “I actually already have my costume. You know, my kids are really into Harry Potter,” according to a Factba.se transcript published by Roll Call.
“Which, if you think about it, with the beard, the white hair, it’s kind of like fat old JD,” he said. “So I feel very comfortable, very comfortable in my Dumbledore costume.”
“When you have four little kids, Halloween is a lot of fun,” he added.
Last Halloween, he went as the meme itself, a doctored image of a heavier Vance with curly hair. He greeted trick-or-treaters at the vice president’s residence in a curly brown wig, dark suit and red tie, and told them to “remember, say thank you!”
His video drew 14 million views within hours, Fox News reported.
