- Friday, December 27, 2024
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Usha Chilukuri Vance grew up in San Diego and is now a civil litigation attorney at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
By: Shajil Kumar
INDIAN-AMERICAN lawyer Usha Chilukuri Vance 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 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: two sons Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter 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.”
Before joining 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.
Trump’s public appearance
Meanwhile, Trump made his first public appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee since surviving an assassination attempt.
The 78-year-old former president was seen wearing a bandage partially covering his right ear.
He entered the hall to roaring applause and holding his fist aloft towards the end of the first day of the four-day convention.
Trump escaped an assassination bid over the weekend while attending a public rally in Philadelphia.
Thousands of Republican delegates, supporters and members of the Republican party chanted “fight” as he entered the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Supporters on the convention floor and standing in the stadium sang along to a live rendition of “God Bless the USA” with singer Lee Greenwood as Trump waved to supporters and joined family members and new running mate JD Vance in their seats.
Trump wore a subdued look as the room around him erupted and chants of “USA” rang out.
On Monday, delegates from across the country elected him as the Republican presidential nominee for the November 5 general election against incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden.
However, Trump would deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday.
The Democratic party would formally nominate Biden as its candidate at its convention in Chicago in August.
Trump was accompanied by Senator J D Vance, his running mate. Earlier in the day, Trump announced that Vance would be his running mate. He was welcomed by the crowd with a thunderous applause. (PTI)
