Who is Usha Chilukuri Vance, who will become the first Indian-origin Second Lady of the USA?

Last updated:Nov 06, 2024 3:26 PM IST

Usha Chilukuri Vance, wife of JD Vance, has roots in Andhra Pradesh and is a Yale-educated lawyer with impressive credentials.

As Donald Trump addressed a cheering crowd of his supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida on the verge of a historic election victory, he praised his Vice President JD Vance and his Indian-American wife Usha Chilukuri Vance.

“I want to be the first to congratulate – now I can say Vice President-elect JD Vance and his remarkable and beautiful wife, Usha Vance,” he said. After Trump announced him to chants from the crowd, JD Vance told his supporters: “We have just experienced the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America.”

Now all eyes are on Usha Vance, a Yale-educated lawyer who is set to become the first Indian-origin Second Lady of the United States. Usha Vance has her roots in Andhra Pradesh and has a range of references and a touch of Indian culture in the American political system.

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Who is Usha Chilukuri Vance?

Usha Vance was born in San Diego in 1986 to Indian immigrant parents and grew up in an upper-middle class suburb. She has an impressive academic background and works as a corporate litigator at a renowned law firm in San Francisco. She holds a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Cambridge New York Times.

Usha Vance's distinguished career includes serving as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh before Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court. She also served as managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Technology and executive development editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Before entering the legal industry, Usha spent four years doing extensive extracurricular work at Yale and then continued her studies as a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge. She met JD Vance at Yale Law School, where the Ohio senator received a scholarship. The couple married in Kentucky in 2014 and were blessed by a Hindu priest in a separate ceremony. The couple has three children – Ewan (6), Vivek (4) and Mirabel (2).

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How Usha Vance contributed to her husband's rise?

Usha Vance, 38, played an important role in her husband's rise to national fame – organizing his ideas about social decline in rural white America that formed the basis of his 2016 bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy.” JD Vance was once a harsh Trump critic, once comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

“I don't feel like changing anything about our lives right now, but I believe in JD and I really love him, and so we'll just see what happens with our lives,” she said in an interview about her running husband for the second highest office in the United States. Interestingly, Usha Vance was a registered Democrat in 2014.

In her interview with Fox NewsUsha Vance spoke about the two living together despite having different beliefs. “I grew up in a religious household. My parents are Hindu and that is one of the reasons why they are such good parents, which makes them really, really good people. And I think I saw that…the power of that in my own life and knew that JD was looking for something. “It just felt right to him,” she said.

Residents of the village of Usha Vance pray

As the election results were announced, special prayers were offered for the success of JD Vance from Vadluru village in Andhra Pradesh's Godavari district, the birthplace of his wife. “America-India relations will improve if Trump becomes president. There is a big fight between the two (Trump and Kamala Harris). We are generally proud that (Usha) Vance is from Vadluru,” Ramana, a resident of the village, told news agency ANI.

“We hope she achieves a victory in the election results that will make our village and our country proud. We have offered special prayers for the success of Usha Vance. Usha’s husband’s victory will advance India-US bilateral relations,” he added.