A native of California, Usha was born to Indian immigrants

Usha Vance was born in San Diego in 1986 as Usha Chilukuri to parents who had emigrated from India. Her father, Krish, worked as an engineer and became a lecturer at San Diego State University. Her mother, Lakshmi, is a microbiologist who became provost at the University of California San Diego.

Usha and her sister grew up in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Peñasquitos. She thrived on the public Mt. Carmel High School before attending Yale University. After graduating in 2007, Usha had a teaching fellowship in China. She subsequently obtained a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar.

Since coming into the public eye, Usha has been the subject of racist attacks due to her Indian-American identity. For his part, JD has defended his wife several times. ‘What kind of man marries Usha? A very smart man and a very happy man, most importantly,” he said.

Usha and JD Vance met in law school and have three children

Usha and JD Vance have two sons, Ewan and Vivek, and a daughter, Mirabel.

In 2010, Usha started at Yale Law School. In her first year she took lessons with JD Vance (who was then called JD Hamel). Usha and JD soon became a couple; their closeness prompted classmates to join their names and call the couple “Judusha.” In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly elegyJD called her his “spiritual guide” at Yale when he was struggling to fit in.

In 2014, Usha and JD married in Kentucky, and she became Usha Vance (JD changed his last name last year). After living in California and Washington DC, the Vances moved to Cincinnati in 2018. They have three children, including two sons and a daughter. Ewan was born in June 2017, followed by Vivek in February 2020 and Mirabel in December 2021.

She worked at the U.S. Supreme Court and at a private law firm

Usha held prestigious clerkships after law school, including for Brett Kavanaugh when he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. In 2017-2018, she interned at the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts.

In addition to legal positions, Usha was an associate at Munger Tolles & Olsen, a law firm with a self-described “radically progressive” culture, until her resignation in July 2024 when JD became the Republican vice presidential pick.

Usha was raised Hindu, but goes to the Catholic church with her family

Her family’s Hindu faith was an important part of Usha’s childhood. In a June 2024 interview with Fox News, she said, “I grew up in a religious household. My parents are Hindu, and that was one of the things that made them such good parents, made them really good people.”

When the Vances got married in 2014, their wedding events included a Hindu blessing ceremony. JD converted to Catholicism in 2019, but Usha did not. However, she supported his decision and accompanies him to church with their children.

The former Democrat fully supports her husband and Trump

Usha was registered as a Democrat until 2014. After her husband became the Republican vice presidential candidate, an anonymous friend said The Washington Post Usha was “shocked by Trump” and disturbed by the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. But like JD, who also had an about-face on Trump, The mailreported comments from a Republican strategist and family friend who said Usha’s views had changed and she now supported both her husband and Trump.

When JD was criticized this year for a 2021 comment about the United States being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable about their own lives,” Usha defended her husband. In an interview with Fox News last August, she described JD’s statement as a “joke.” “What he was really saying is that it can be very difficult to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed to make it even more difficult,” Usha said.

Sara Kettler is a freelance writer from Connecticut who has written for Biography.com, History, and the A&E True Crime blog. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America and also writes mystery novels. Besides writing, she enjoys dogs, Broadway shows and studying foreign languages.