It is noted that Usha has been a prominent force in Vance's political career, especially helping him shape his views around rural white America.
Published Jul 16, 2024 | 2:06 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 16, 2024 | 2:07 PM
Usha Chilukuri with JD Vance. (X)
Usha Chilukuri Vance, an Indian American lawyer is under the spotlight with the Republican candidate Donald Trump announcing JD Vance as his running mate for the upcoming elections.
Usha, 38, would be the possible first Indian American second lady, if Trump and Vance win the 5 November general elections against incumbent President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
She joined her 39-year-old husband on Monday, 16 July, as he accepted the nomination in an acclimation vote by delegates — after the couple jubilantly greeted convention attendees.
It is noted that Usha has been a prominent force in Vance’s political career, especially helping him shape his views around rural white America, on which he went on to write a best-selling memoir—Hillbilly Elegy.
In his campaign video, Vance states, he wrote the memoir as “there are not many stories about the white working-class Americans.”
The book is about his family’s struggles with poverty, addiction, and instability, and, ultimately, his journey out.
The daughter of Telugu-origin Indian immigrants, Usha grew up in a San Diego suburb. Friends from her childhood and adolescence described her as a “leader” and a “bookworm.” As of 2014, she was a registered Democrat.
She attended Yale University, graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in history, with membership in Phi Beta Kappa.
Usha is a civil litigation attorney at Munger, Tolles & Olson, LLP. She has clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. She also clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh while he was a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Prior to law school, she got a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale and a master of philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge.
Usha and Vance met at Yale Law School where the two were studying. She would be the first Hindu spouse of a vice president — and would succeed second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is the first Jewish spouse of a vice president, The New York Post reported.
The Vance couple was married in 2014 in Kentucky and were blessed by a Hindu priest at a different event, according to a New York Times profile. The Vances have three children: sons Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter named Mirabel.
Usha said she was reluctant to gain greater public exposure in a “Fox & Friends” joint interview with her husband last month, the Post reported.
JD Vance’s successful 2022 Senate campaign was “an adventure,” she said, but “I’m not raring to change anything about our lives right now.”
“But I believe in JD and I really love him, and so we’ll just sort of see what happens with our life — where we’re open,” she said in the interview. Vance said that his wife “is not a Christian” but was “very supportive” of his deepening faith, the report added.
Asked about the challenges of an interfaith marriage, she said, “There are a lot of things that we just agree on, I think, especially when it comes to family life, how to raise our kids. And so I think the answer really is, we just talk a lot.”
Usha has not appeared in many public events but has made some appearances on talk shows. On Monday, she was seen along with Vance on the floor of the Republican National Convention as part of the Ohio delegation.
Batting for JD Vance, Usha notes, “If he can bring himself in a position to make a difference for them (people of Ohio), he will.”
Who is @JDVance1?
Watch this from his Senate campaign launch 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/J7XgAN2p7y
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 12, 2024
It is also anticipated that Usha’s background in law, being of Indian origin, will be a plus in India-US relationship if the republicans were to win.
Vance, author and venture capitalist, turned politician, once called Trump an “idiot”, “cultural heroin” and a potential “American Hitler” is now his running mate.
Vance gained popularity after his memoir Hillbilly Elegy (2016) became a bestseller. The memoir recounts his experiences in a “middle-class white family” living in Ohio. How the place and his upbringing shaped his views and worldview.
Announcing him as the running mate, Trump wrote on Facebook, “(He) will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond. As Vice President, J.D. will continue to fight for our Constitution, stand with our Troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula, with PTI inputs)
