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.
