Ever since her husband, JD Vance, emerged as a surprise pick of former US President Donald Trump as his vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 US presidential elections, all eyes are on Usha Vance. With a genuine possibility of becoming the first South Asian ‘second lady’ of the United States, Usha Vance finds herself in the spotlight for everything from education to net worth and family to heritage.
On 15 July 2024, on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump picked his former critic, junior United States senator from Ohio, James David Vance, better known as JD Vance, as his running mate. Two days later, Vance formally accepted the nomination, becoming the first Marine veteran to receive a presidential ticket.
This not only shot Vance’s political profile many notches higher, but it also brought attention to the influential Indian-American community in Indian politics because of the background of his wife and Trump’s biggest contender — Kamala Harris.
In a way, Usha now stands a chance at becoming one of the most powerful women in the world and creating history. But Republican opponents would believe that her accomplishment cannot be seen at the same level as that of Harris’ — the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected Vice President of the United States.
Nevertheless, interest in Usha’s background and her personal accomplishments — which are phenomenal — is palpable.
It is also noteworthy that had her husband not been a Republican and the running mate of one of the world’s most divisive figures, JD Vance would be unanimously hailed as one of the most inspirational people in current American politics — at least a profile on him by Forbes gives this impression.
Besides his political and military career, Vance is also known for his investments and legal profession. But his biggest claim to fame to date has been his book, Hillbilly Elegy (2016).
The book turned him into a star on the American cultural scene. His memoir talked about his poor Appalachian family in the rural US as well as how his life turned out and his meeting with Usha. It was at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list twice. It became one of the books adapted into a film when Netflix released it in 2020, in which Usha was played by Slumdog Millionaire (2009) star Freida Pinto.
But Vance has always credited Usha for his success in his past interviews as well as at election rallies since becoming vice presidential candidate, even admitting that she is far more accomplished than he is. This is why many are eager to know who Usha Vance is and how she built her own life.
All about Usha Vance, her education, career and properties
Usha Vance comes from a highly educated family
Usha Vance is the child of Indian immigrants. She was born Usha Chilukuri and raised in the suburbs of San Diego, California, in a Hindu-practicing household.
A Reuters report reveals that her parental family, who hail from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has always been academically gifted. Her parents arrived in the US in the late 1970s. Her mother, Lakshmi, is a provost at the University of California, San Diego, while her father, Krish, teaches aerospace engineering at San Diego State University.
Her great-aunt, Shanthamma Chilukuri, who is 96 years old, is a physics teacher in India and is celebrated in the local media as the country’s oldest active professor. Her grandfather, Ramasastry Chilukuri, taught at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in Chennai, from where her father graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering.
One of Usha Vance’s aunts is a medical professional in India, while her younger sister, Shreya, is a mechanical engineer with a semiconductor company in San Diego.
She has an accomplished educational and legal career
Her LinkedIn profile reveals she graduated with a BA in History from Yale University in 2007. The university attracts some of the brightest minds from around the world and boasts well-known alumni, including Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s daughter Isha Ambani.
Subsequently, Usha earned an MPhil qualification in early modern history as a Gates Scholar from the University of Cambridge in the UK. In 2013, she graduated from Yale Law School with a Doctor of Law (JD).
After earning her JD from Yale, she embarked on a legal career. She clerked for the then-District of Columbia Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, now a Supreme Court justice, in 2014. She then held the same job with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in 2017.
She worked at a ‘radically progressive’ law firm
Usha is a member of the DC bar. Until the day JD Vance was named the vice-presidential candidate of Donald Trump, Usha worked as a civil litigator at the DC and California-based firm Munger Tolles & Olson. The law firm is particularly noted for touting its “radically progressive” work culture and diversity initiatives.
At the firm, she represented clients connected to The Walt Disney Company and the University of California.
“Usha has informed us she has decided to leave the firm. 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,” the firm said in a statement on 15 July, the day JD Vance was named Trump’s running mate.
Commenting on her educational and career accomplishments in 2020, JD Vance said on the Megyn Kelly Show podcast that she “definitely brings me back to Earth a little bit.”
“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,” he said.
Usha and JD Vance had an interfaith marriage
Usha met JD Vance in 2013 when both were studying at Yale Law School. According to The New York Times, their first meeting happened when they joined a discussion group on “social decline in white America.”
They married in an interfaith ceremony in 2014 and have three children — two sons, Ewan, 6, and Vivek, 4, and a daughter, Mirabel, 2.
Both Usha and her husband reflected on their harmonious religious beliefs in an interview with Fox & Friends talk show in June 2024.
“Even though I was raised Christian. I’d never been baptised, so I was baptised the first time in 2018. Usha was not raised Christian [and] is actually not a Christian. But I remember when I started to re-engage with my own faith, Usha was very supportive,” 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,” Usha said on the show.
Her husband, JD Vance, has a high net worth
According to his profile on Forbes, JD Vance has a net worth of around USD 10 million. Much of this comes from his venture firm, Narya, which he started in 2019. The firm put its money on right-wing video-sharing platform Rumble, which is today YouTube’s closest competitor in the US.
His other investments through his firm include former US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive Asset Management. According to Forbes, Vance acquired venture holdings and liquid assets between USD 3 million and USD 10 million by 2021.
Before creating his firm, JD Vance worked at a biotech outfit and Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Mithril. Some part of his net worth is composed of proceeds from his book Hillbilly Elegy and its Netflix adaptation.
Usha Vance was once a registered Democrat
Citing public records, NBC News revealed that Usha Vance had voted in a Democratic primary in 2014. It can thus be concluded that she was not a Conservative supporter until that point.
However, when JD Vance ran for the Senate in the 2022 Republican primary in Ohio, she voted Republican. Vance won the election and became a senator from Ohio, taking oath on 3 January 2023.
Reports suggest that besides voting in favour of her husband, Usha has only one recorded political donation — to Arizona Republican senate candidate Blake Masters in 2021. Interestingly, Masters is more famously known as a protégé of Thiel.
A New York Times report revealed that her parents are Democrats. Her mother was, in fact, one of the 2,300 California professors who in 2017 signed an open letter to Donald Trump urging him not to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
The net worth of Usha Vance includes at least two houses
There is no information on the net worth of Usha Vance, but she purchased two houses with her husband. The value of both can be understood as part of her net worth.
They bought their first house in Washington D.C., east of the Capitol building, in 2014, soon after their marriage. The house, according to Forbes, cost them USD 590,000, and they had to borrow just over USD 600,000 to pay for it. Today, the house is worth an estimated USD 850,000. They have no debts except USD 480,000 left on the borrowings.
They bought a second home in 2018. Located in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills, the house reportedly cost the couple USD 1.4 million. Interestingly, East Walnut Hills is a Left-leaning neighbourhood and has been a strong supporter of Biden.
According to Forbes, the house has five bedrooms and is located on a ground measuring 436.6 sq metres. It is in the possession of the couple but is under the ownership of a limited liability company (LLC), which protects it from lawsuits and creditors. Its current worth, according to Forbes, is around USD 1.8 million.
When Vance became a senator and returned to Washington D.C. in 2023, he bought the family’s third property — a USD 1.6 million 232 sq-metre property just about 12.5 km south in Alexandria, Virginia. Interestingly, this city, too, voted heavily in favour of Biden in the 2020 US presidential elections.
(Hero and Featured images: Courtesy of Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, JD Vance and Usha have been married since 2014. They have three children, two boys and a girl.
Usha is an American citizen who was born to Indian immigrants in 1986.
According to 'Forbes', JD Vance has a net worth of around USD 10 million. The net worth of Usha Vance is not clear. However, she co-owns at least two of the three million-dollar properties of the couple.
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Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
