A lawyer, she could be US’ first PIO second lady

Usha Vance, 38, would be the possible first Indian American second lady, if Donald Trump and her husband J D Vance win the Nov 5 election. She would be the first Hindu spouse of a vice-president.

Once a registered Dem
Friends from her childhood described her as a “leader” and a “bookworm”. Brainy, ambitious and pragmatic, she moved from an extracurricular-studded four years at Yale, where she got a bachelor’s degree in history, to Cambridge, where she earned a master of philosophy degree, and moved in liberal and left-wing circles. As of 2014, she was a registered Democrat. Now a corporate litigator at a prestigious San Francisco law firm, Usha has clerked for Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was an appeals court judge. It’s a conspicuous resume for a woman whose husband gave a speech in 2021 titled “The Universities are the Enemy”.

Spotlight-shy but key player
Usha has played a quiet but key role in her husband’s rise. At Yale, she helped Vance organise his ideas about social decline in rural white America, which formed the basis of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”. And she made rare but well-choreographed appearances with Vance as he sought the Ohio Senate seat. In an interview last month, Usha, who mostly stays out of the spotlight, sounded a note of ambivalence about the prospect of her husband running for V-P. “I’m not raring to change anything about our lives..., but I believe in JD.”

Happy interfaith couple
Vance has said his wife “is not a Christian” but was “very supportive” of his deepening faith. Asked about the challenges of an interfaith marriage, Usha said, “There are a lot of things we agree on, I think, especially when it comes to family life, how to raise our kids. So I think the answer really is, we just talk a lot.”

(With inputs from NYT & PTI)