At the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida, it was midnight when Donald Trump and his entourage appeared on stage to a resounding applause from a crowd eagerly waiting to catch a glimpse of their President-elect. Moments into his victory speech on Tuesday, Trump lauded his running mate JD Vance and his Indian-American wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance.
Trump defeated Democratic rival Kamala Harris by a margin of 53 electoral votes. “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,” Trump said, drawing loud cheers from the audience.
Who is Usha Vance?
Born to Indian parents who emigrated from Andhra Pradesh to the US in 1986, Usha Chilukuri Vance was raised in a suburb of San Diego, California.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Yale University and went on to complete a Master of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar.
The would-be Second Lady of the United States also held editorial roles at the Yale Journal of Law & Technology and The Yale Law Journal, where she served as Managing Editor and Executive Development Editor, respectively.
Usha met JD Vance at Yale Law School and got married in 2014 in a ceremony that included a Hindu ritual. Together, they have three children. Throughout JD Vance’s political career, Usha has been a supportive partner, often appearing alongside him during his Ohio Senate campaign. Her insights also contributed to JD Vance’s well-known memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which sheds light on the struggles of rural America and was later adapted into a movie directed by Ron Howard.
She works as a corporate litigator at a firm in San Francisco. Her legal career also includes clerking for US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
