History in the Making: Usha Vance Becomes the First Indian American Second Lady 

America has an Indian American second lady — Usha Chilukuri Vance — “the remarkable and beautiful” wife of vice president J.D. Vance. The 39-year-old daughter of Indian immigrants, who grew up in a San Diego suburb,is one of the youngest second ladies to assume the position.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Usha grew up in a San Diego suburb. Her parents, Chilukuri Radhakrishna (Krish) and Lakshmi Chilukuri are originally from Andhra Pradesh and moved to the U.S. in 1980. An attorney, Usha worked as an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, a job she quit the day after Trump chose Vance as his running mate. 

Since then, much has been written about Usha — her upbringing, her political affiliations, her personal life and her role as an Indian American. There’s been a lot of discussions regarding the latter, with some from the community excited about her becoming the second lady, while others arguing that she doesn’t represent them. Several Indian American women refused to share their reactions with American Kahanio, admitting their anger and displeasure on the 2024 election results.

Atlanta, Georgia-based teacher Anu Barucha is part of the Indian American community that believes that Usha Vance is not representative of her either politically or socially. But at there same time, she doesn’t negate the spotlight she puts “on the role that Indian Americans have begun playing in the political arena.” While Indian Americans were
already dominating the business arena and now the political, Usha “has really put the spotlight on the role that Indian Americans have begun playing in the political arena,” Barucha said. “So in that way, her being the Second Lady is a strong statement to Indian Americans.” 

Several Indian American women agree with Barucha. “I don’t feel like she’s the representation that I want as an Indian American woman, a mom and a working woman,” attorney Sujata Raman of Novi, Michigan, told USA Today.  “I have a really hard time with… the rhetoric, the divisiveness, the vitriol that is the Trump-Vance campaign, and what they’ve promised,: she said. “It’s just so counter to what I thought this country as a whole was all about, and especially the Indian American community.”

Similarly, Trisha Mohan, who works in programs and operations at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., told USA Today that she doesn’t think hat Usha’s role “will change JD Vance and Trump’s messaging or political ideology.” She feels that “aligning ourselves with them is only going to hurt our community more.

Then there are women like Dhivya Ramalingam of Morrisville, North Carolina, who says Usha becoming the second lady is a “proud moment” for Indian Americans. “It’s a proud moment for all Indian women. Even I got goosebumps,”she told ABC 11. “I shared with my mom this morning and she was also talking about this. They were very happy.”

A Powerful Female Voice

Many who know Usha well believe that she will be a different second lady. While the role of the second lady is relegated to the sidelines of White House life, Usha has played anything but a subordinate role in the rapid rise of her husband.

Vance has often praised Usha in interviews, describing her as a “powerful female voice” and saying that she holds considerable influence over his career. “Usha definitely brings me back to Earth a little bit, and if I maybe get a little bit too cocky or a little too proud, I just remind myself that she is way more accomplished than I am,” Vance said in an interview on the “Megyn Kelly Show” podcast in 2020.  “I’m one of those guys who really benefit from having, like, a sort of powerful female voice on his left shoulder saying, ‘Don’t do that, do that’—it just is important.”

He told Kelly that he loves his wife very much. “Obviously, she’s not a white person, and we’ve been accused — attacked — by some white supremacists over that,” he continued. “But I just — I love Usha. She’s such a good mom, she’s such a brilliant lawyer and I’m so proud of her.”Her experience has “helped give him the perspective that it’s very hard for working families in America,” he added. 

In a November 2020 profile on the Vances, The Cinemaholic noted that in “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance wrote that “Usha helped him realize that he had baggage from his tumultuous upbringing even after he managed to achieve all his dreams.” She had told him that he had no idea of how to resolve a conflict, he wrote. He feared becoming like his mother, he wrote, but Usha made him see that all he had to do was talk to her to make her see his side of an argument.

A Sounding Board

Classmates remember her as someone who stood out in the hyper-competitive world of Ivy League law for her willingness to lend a helping hand. Charles Tyler, now a law professor, told the BBC that Usha “would take time to advise other students on how to apply for the highly prized judicial clerkships that she herself wanted.” She had “a great deal of influence over her husband,” although they “have a very equal partnership,” Tyler said. Another friend called her “a sounding board” for JD Vance, and his “spirit guide pretty much since Yale.”

Usha met Vance at Yale while they were both law students at Yale. In a 2017 interview with NBC News, she aid she was attracted to Vance in part because of his positive attitude. “He felt very different.” They married in 2014. The couple has three children — two boys and a girl — Ewan, 7, Vivek, 4, and Mirabel, 2.

“Tiger Mom” author and Vance’s mentor at Yale, Amy Chia told NBC News that Vance once told her that he knew Usha was his soulmate the moment they first met. “He describes it as a lightning bolt, and I saw that. I’ve never seen anybody so starstruck. It was love at first sight,” she shared.

Vance told the Scottish magazine The List that his “friends made fun of him when they noticed how smitten” he was with Usha. But he “finally plucked up the courage” to ask her  on a date as the academic year came to a close. He only made it through one date before confessing his love. “It violated every rule of modern dating I’d learned as a young man, but I didn’t care,” Vance told The List.

And going by everything Usha had said about her husband, he seems to have made a good impression on her.  In her introductory speech at the Republican Convention, she said her middle-class upbringing was very different to her husband’s experience growing up poor in Ohio. “That J.D. and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry is a testament to this great country,” Mrs Vance said. “It is also a testament to J.D.”

A Proud Hindu American

Much has been written about Usha’s faith and political affiliation as well.  A registered Democrat before 2014, a Times profile on Usha noted she has “largely kept her political views private and has not been very vocal about her positions.” Citing voter records, the Times says she was registered as a Republican in Ohio and “participated in the state’s Republican Senate primary in which her husband was a candidate.”

Jai Chabria, a Republican strategist for J.D. Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign and a family friend, told The Washington Post that Usha’s “views of the former president have changed, mirroring the evolution of her husband, once a fierce Trump critic.” Usha has had “a similar shift in views and fully supports Donald Trump and her husband.

Usha was raised as a Hindu and continues to practice the faith. “I did grow up in a religious household, my parents are Hindu, and I think that was one of the things that made them such good parents, that makes them really very good people,” she told Fox News in a previous interview. Vance added during the same interview that his “wife’s faith was a key factor in his decision to re-engage with Christianity later in his life,” which he said Usha has been supportive of. 

In a June interview with Fox News alongside her husband, Usha talked about being raised in a religious household. “My parents are Hindu and that is one of the things that made them such good parents, that made them really good people. And so I have seen the power of that.”