sFormer United States President and Republican Presidential Pick Donald Trump has selected Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate for the upcoming presidential elections in November. If Trump wins, Vance will be the next Vice-President of the United States.
JD Vance, who is the author of the bestselling memoir on what ails the White working class, Hillbilly Elegy, has an Indian connection. Vance, 39, is married to Indian American Usha Chilukuri Vance, who traces her origins to Andhra Pradesh.
The potential second lady, who has been by Vance’s side throughout his political career and community initiatives, is a trial lawyer and a judicial clerk.
Education and career
Raised in a suburb of San Diego, California, with a strong emphasis on education and hard work, Usha’s academic achievements include serving as Managing Editor of the Yale Journal of Law & Technology and Executive Development Editor of The Yale Law Journal, according to a biography from Munger, Tolles & Olson law firm.
After four years of intense extracurricular activity at Yale, she continued her studies as a Gates fellow at Cambridge, where she engaged with left-wing and liberal groups. She was a registered Democrat in 2014.
Meeting JD Vance at Yale Law School
Usha and JD Vance first met at Yale Law School and were married in Kentucky in 2014, with a Hindu priest presiding over a separate ceremony, according to the New York Times. The couple has three children together.
For years, the senator has described his wife as a key part of his success, dating back to when the two attended law school together at Yale University, where Usha Vance also graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree.
In his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy," JD Vance described her as his “Yale spirit guide," helping him navigate life at the elite university where they met.
“She instinctively understood the questions I didn’t even know to ask, and she always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn’t know existed," he wrote.
Resignation after V-P announcement
In 2015, she started as an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson, a law firm with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, DC. She continued working at the firm between clerkships, where – according to an archived version of her employee biography – she handled “complex civil litigation and appeals" in sectors that included “higher education, local government, entertainment, and technology, including semiconductors."
The firm announced Monday that she had resigned.
“Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm," the company 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."