US elections 2024: Soon-to-be Second Lady Usha Vance's Indian village “awaits her help” after Donald Trump's victory | World News

As the election campaign in the United States ends with Republicans rejoicing in Donald Trump's victory, a small village in India is holding its own quaint celebration for one of their descendants who will now become America's “Second Lady.”

This small village is the ancestral hometown of Usha Vance, wife of US Vice President-elect JD Vance.

Academic high-flyer and successful lawyer Usha Vance, the child of Indian immigrants, will become the “Second Lady” of the USA after Donald Trump claimed victory in the US elections and officially named JD Vance as the country's vice president-elect.

While 38-year-old Usha Vance was born and raised in a suburb of San Diego, people in her paternal ancestral village in Andhra Pradesh prayed that historical ties would lead to improvements in their country.

Residents of Vadluru, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, beamed with pride after Trump won the popular vote. Despite being more than 8,000 miles (13,450 kilometers) from the White House, residents proudly repeated, “We support Trump.”

Hindu priest Appaji, who had been praying in the village hoping for a Trump-Vance victory, said: “We expect her to help our village. If she can recognize her roots and do something good for this village, that would be great.”

Usha Vance's great-grandfather moved from Vadluru and her father Chilukuri Radhakrishnan – a graduate student – grew up in Chennai before studying in the United States.

Little is known about Radhakrishnan's first years in the United States, but JD Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy talks about how he came to the country with “nothing.”

Although Usha Vance has never personally visited the village, the priest said that her father visited the site about three years ago to inquire about the condition of the temple.

Usha, a practicing Hindu who studied at Yale and Cambridge universities, married JD Vance in Kentucky in 2014. They have three children.

(With inputs from AFP)