Spotlight on Usha Vance, Indian-American wife of Trump’s running mate

PTI, Jul 16, 2024, 11:36 AM IST

Milwaukee: Indian-American lawyer Usha Chilukuri Vance has burst into the national spotlight after her husband, JD Vance, was named by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as his running mate.

Usha, 38, would be the possible first Indian American second lady, if Trump and Vance win the November 5 general elections against incumbent President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Usha joined her 39-year-old husband on Monday as he accepted the nomination in an acclimation vote by delegates — after the couple jubilantly greeted convention attendees.

The daughter of 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.

Usha, a graduate of Yale Law School, 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.

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.”

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 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.

People said Vance tends to keep his children out of the spotlight, though he has made references to his children over the years.