Attention lately has primarily been focused on President-elect Donald Trump ahead of Inauguration Day.
Trump will be sworn in as America’s 47th president Monday, Jan. 20, with members of his family at his side.
Before Trump is sworn in, though, JD Vance will take the oath of office as the country’s new vice president. Expected to be present will be his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, who will become the country’s new second lady.
Here’s an introduction to the woman who JD Vance has described as his wife as “brilliant” and “way more accomplished than I am.”
Who is JD Vance married to?
Vice President-elect JD Vance is married to Usha Chilukuri Vance.
Who is Usha Chilukuri Vance?
Usha Chilukuri Vance was born to Indian immigrants who moved to the U.S. in the late 1970s, Reuters reported. She was raised in the suburbs of San Diego, California.
Her mother is a marine molecular biologist, biochemist and a provost at the University of California San Diego, according to Reuters. Her father is an engineer, according to a Scripps News report.
Her father and grandfather both taught or studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, India’s premier engineering college, according to Reuters, and her younger sister is a mechanical engineer with a semiconductor company in San Diego.
A great-aunt, Shanthamma Chilukuri, lives in southern India and has been celebrated in local media as the country’s oldest active professor, according to Reuters. Shanthamma Chilukuri travels 40 miles most weekdays to university to teach physics.
“Most of our family is academically strong and education has been a top priority,” Shanthamma Chilukuri told Reuters.
Friends from her childhood and adolescence described Usha Vance as a “leader” and a “bookworm.” the New York Times reported.
Usha Vance’s education includes degrees from Yale, Cambridge
Usha Vance graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and was also a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University, where she graduated with a master’s degree in philosophy.
It was at Yale that Usha Chilukuri and JD Vance met. While there, they organized a discussion group on the subject of “social decline in white America,” according to The New York Times.
In his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” JD Vance said the two got to know each other through a class assignment, where he soon “fell hard” for his writing partner.
“In a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha’s presence made me feel at home,” he wrote.
‘Testament to this great country’: Marriage of JD and Usha Vance
“My background is very different from JD’s,” Usha Vance said at the Republican National Convention in July.
“I grew up in San Diego, in a middle-class community with two loving parents, both immigrants from India, and a wonderful sister. That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country.”
During his 2024 campaign, she defended JD Vance for his remarks deriding women without children as “childless cat ladies” and stood by his side despite his anti-immigration rhetoric and other controversial policies he’s backed, such as mass deportations.
During her speech in July, she noted JD Vance learned to cook Indian food for her parents.
Where did Usha Vance work?
After law school, Usha Vance clerked for a year for Brett Kavanaugh on the District of Columbia court of appeals. Kavanaugh is now a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
She then she clerked for another year with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
In 2015, Usha Vance worked as an associate and then as a corporate litigator at Munger, Tolles and Olson, a law firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington that describes its corporate culture as “radically progressive.”
She left the law firm shortly after her JD Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate.
“Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm,” Munger, Tolles & Olson said in a statement.
“Usha has been an excellent lawyer and colleague, and we thank her for her years of work and wish her the best in her future career.”
When did Usha Chilukuri marry JD Vance?
Usha Chilukuri married JD Vance after they graduated from Yale in 2013.
The two were married in Kentucky in 2014, and blessed by a Hindu pundit in a separate ceremony, according to New York Times.
Religion and JD and Usha Vance
During a Fox News interview, JD Vance said Usha Vance had helped him “re-engage” with his Christian faith.
Sitting by him during the interview, Usha Vance said, “I did grow up 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,” Reuters said.
‘Stable, normal life’: Do JD and Usha Vance have children?
JD and Usha Vance have three children.
- Son Ewan was born in June 2017.
- Son Vivek was born in February 2020.
- Daughter Mirabel was born in December 2021.
Usha Vance told “Fox & Friends” she never thought she’d be in politics, that they planned to be lawyers with a family, and that they have agreed to keep their children out of the spotlight.
“Through his Senate candidacy, we had a lot of serious conversations, because, you know, we do have three children, and giving them a stable, normal, happy life and upbringing is something that is the most important thing to us,” she said
How does Usha Vance describe her husband, JD Vance?
Usha Vance described JD Vance as a “meat and potatoes kind of guy,” but one who had adapted to her vegetarian diet and even learned how to cook Indian food for her mother, according to the BBC.
In an interview on Fox News over the summer, she said: “I believe in JD, and I really love him, and so we’ll just sort of see what happens with our life.”
“Neither JD nor I expected to find ourselves in this position,” she said at the RNC.
How does JD Vance describe his wife, Usha Vance?
“Usha definitely brings me back to Earth a little bit,” Vance told the Megyn Kelly Show podcast in 2020. “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.
“People don’t realize just how brilliant she is,” he added, saying she is able to digest a 1,000-page book in only a few hours,” according to a story by the BBC.
She is the “powerful female voice on his left shoulder,” giving him guidance, he said.
As Vance took the stage at the Republican convention, he echoed previous praise of his wife being an “incredible lawyer and a better mom.”
In his memoir, Vance credited part of his success and happiness to his wife.
“Even at my best, I’m a delayed explosion. I can be defused, but only with skill and precision,” Vance wrote. “It’s not just that I’ve learned to control myself but that Usha has learned how to manage me.”
How do you say Usha Vance?
Her first name, Usha, is pronounced “OO-shah,” and her maiden name, Chilukuri, is typically pronounced “chee-loo-KOO-ree,” with the emphasis on the third syllable.
Is Usha Vance Republican or Democrat?
Voter records show that as of 2022, Usha Chilukuri Vance was a registered Republican in Ohio, and voted in the Republican primary that year — the same election that her husband was running in the Republican senate primary.
Usha Vance’s previous voting history shows she voted as a Democrat at least once while living in Connecticut.
How old is Usha Vance?
Usha Vance will become the first Indian American second lady in the White House. She will also be the first Hindu second lady, according to ABC News.
At 39 years old, she also will become the youngest second lady since the Truman administration, when 38-year-old Jane Hadley Barkley, wife of former Vice President Alben Barkley, assumed the role in 1949, according to abcnews.
Where do JD and Usha Vance live now?
The two live in Cincinnati with their three children.
Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio, which is about 40 miles north of Cincinnati. Vance’s best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” is about his childhood there.
The couple currently own a home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood, where he’s lived since 2018.
Where does the vice president live while in office?
Since Walter Mondale, vice presidents have lived with their families on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory, according to whitehouse.gov.
The nineteenth-century house at Number One Observatory Circle in northwestern Washington, D.C., was built in 1893.
“Historically, Vice Presidents and their families lived in their own homes, but the cost of securing these private residences grew substantially over the years. Finally, in 1974, Congress agreed to refurbish the house at the Naval Observatory as a home for the Vice President,” according to whitehouse.gov.
Kamala Harris hasn’t invited Vances to where vice president lives
Vice President Kamala Harris has not invited JD and his wife to the home of the vice president, which is customary so the new vice president can familiarize themselves with their new home, cbsnews.com reported.
Usha Vance in November reached out to the staff seeking information, including what would be needed to childproof the home for their young children.
“Before Christmas, Navy officials provided an overview of the house to discuss the layout of the residence, logistics and practicalities of the move-in and to help answer any questions the Vances had, a person familiar with the call said.”
Will Usha Vance have an office and staff?
The office of the second spouse is located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the second floor, adjacent to the office of the vice president, according to whitehousehistory.
The second spouse has previously employed three staff members: a chief of staff, communications director, and policy aide.according to whitehousehistory.
The vice president has an office on the grounds of the White House,
What does the second lady do?
For much of American history, the spouse of the vice president of the United States did not have much of a public role, according to whitehousehistory.
That began to change.
The term “Second Lady,” the honorific used to designate the wife of the vice president, was first used publicly years after the inception of the title “First Lady,” which began with Frances Folsom Cleveland in 1886, according to whitehousehistory.
Jennie Hobart, the spouse of Vice President Garret Hobart (1897-1899), called herself “Second Lady” when she assumed the hostess duties typically performed by the First Lady of the United States, according to whitehousehistory.
The public role of the second lady did not expand throughout the first half of the 20th century. The only institutional role for the spouse of the vice president was to serve as the unofficial convener of the Red Cross Senate Wives, an organization formed in 1917 to aid American efforts during World War I.
Patricia Nixon began the transformation of the role of second lady during the Dwight Eisenhower administration when her husband Richard Nixon served as vice president (1953-1961), according to whitehousehistory.
Muriel Humphrey fulfilled the role of second lady when her husband, Hubert Humphrey, served as vice president during Lyndon Johnson’s full elected term of office. She traveled extensively on official visits as Second Lady of the United States.
Betty Ford followed in Muriel Humphrey and Pat Nixon’s footsteps by further enhancing the public profile of the role. As second lady, Mrs. Ford gave several media interviews in which she provided her opinions on controversial topics such as abortion, pre-marital sex, and marijuana use.
During the 1980s, the second spouse became an established, key component of the vice president’s team.
SLOTUS vs SGOTUS: Second spouses
The acronym associated with the female spouse of the vice president is SLOTUS, which stands for second lady of the United States.
The acronym for a male spouse of the vice president is SGOTUS, which stands for second gentleman of the United States, according to whitehousehistory.
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, is the first man to assume the role of second spouse.
